


Sojourners

by XDDD



Series: Ipsen Avon [3]
Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-17
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 09:52:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 123,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6799090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XDDD/pseuds/XDDD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where Materia is but a mere memory, the Planet demands an ancient war hero be brought back to neutralise an ancient war threat. Cloud has always been condoning of the Planet's wiles. Not quite so anymore, now that Sephiroth is in the picture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter One  
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

 

When Vincent found Cloud, he was seated upon his usual bench. There was a gentle breeze, and fallen leaves decked the grassy fields beneath.

He was struck by a sudden revelation at how nothing had changed. How a few thousand years had passed since Meteor almost struck the Planet, and yet nothing had changed. Cloud still sported blond, spikey hair, favoured large broadswords and donned drab, lifeless clothing. And Vincent, he still stuck to his long, tousled mane with little to no alteration in his choice of colour and clothing.

Cloud once said that it was because neither of them were ready to let go of the memories of that era in time. The era in time which marked and defined their being.

Vincent was not sure if he agreed.

He stood behind the bench, a good distance away. Quiet enough to be unobtrusive, conspicuous enough to be noticed. With his silence, Cloud neither acknowledged nor discredited Vincent's presence. He seemed to be thinking about something. There was a small book wedged comfortably between his two hands. Vincent did not attempt to make a guess at what Cloud was reading, knowing that if the blond deemed it necessary, he would reveal the details to him in due time.

Which he did.

"Once upon a time," read Cloud outloud, in a quiet, monotonous voice, "there lived a Prince. He was very beautiful, with a perfect face and long, silver hair. The Prince lived in the Kingdom of Shinra. The Kingdom of Shinra was a rich and prosperous country. The Prince had everything he wanted - people, land and money. This made him very cold and proud. He did not speak to people he did not like. His heart became hard and unkind. One day, a travelling witch visited the castle. She asked for a room to stay for the night. The Prince, who was cold and unkind, turned her down harshly. Angry at the way she was treated, the witch spat upon the gates of the castle and cursed the Prince and his Kingdom. 'In seven moons, if you are not be able to get a fair Princess to marry you of her own free will, a calamity from the sky shall rain down upon your Kingdom, and you can do nothing to save those in your Kingdom.'..."

"'Ipsen's Abridged Edition of Popular Fairytales' again?" Vincent decided to cut Cloud's recital off at that point. After all, he was fairly familiar with the outcome of the story. Cloud said nothing. He closed the book in his hands and tucked it under an arm. Standing up, he turned around and nodded at Vincent, who had to hide his chuckle. Vincent continued, "You never did tell me if you wrote that story, or if someone else did."

Cloud smiled softly, almost teasingly. "What if I did, and what if I didn't?"

Vincent was silent. As if he knew the answer was obvious enough to remain unrequited.

"I like to read about the old times," Cloud carried on with a shrug. He rounded the bench in purposeful strides and walked calmly towards Vincent, the book still under his arm. "It's interesting to know how the future people view major events of ancient times. Our time."

"I do not see how a few thousand years can make people forget what really happened and change someone as evil as Sephiroth into a Prince going on a search for his one true love to prevent the Calamity that had already happened prior to his birth," Vincent shook his head in disbelief. Cloud laughed out loud.

"People like to romanticise things." The blond waved the book he held in his hands slightly. "That's why we have fairytales." In a wistful voice, he continued, "...besides, no man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks..."

Vincent neither agreed nor disagreed with that. "Cloud," the man's tone became slightly more serious, "...the Cetra Seers want us to deliver something to the Icicle Area."

Cloud blinked, his musings about romanticism and fairytales all but forgotten. "They must be kidding."

A nod of agreement. "My sentiments exactly. Although they do not seem to share our hesitation."

"Do they /know/ what's going on in the Planet now, outside of their safe refuge in the Ancient Temple?" Cloud frowned. He started walking, past Vincent, towards a dilapidated cottage in the background.

Vincent turned as Cloud brushed by him, and followed the blond. "The Seers never tell us anything we want to know."

"That doesn't mean they should send us on a suicide mission to the North," Cloud retorted.

"Perhaps they feel we are the only ones strong enough to fight off the Bazookas."

This made Cloud halt abruptly. He turned to look at Vincent. There was a deep frown knitted across his eyebrows. And if Vincent stared hard enough, he thought he could see a childish pout of defiance as well. The blond then sighed softly. He put a hand over his forehead and closed his eyes, likely trying to think of a way out of the mission which he perceived would lead to certain disaster.

There was none.

A few hours later, Cloud found himself in the exact same pose of resigned reluctance, when he stood before the Council of Seers in the bowels of the Ancient Temple. It had been a long time since the Seers had requested for their services. Now that there were no longer true Cetra on the Planet, there was no way the inhabitants in the world could hear the voices of the Planet, to know how the Planet felt about certain things. The Seers were a group of pseudo Cetra who were given limited powers by the Planet itself to talk to it. Through these people, the Planet communicated its feelings. Sometimes, what the Planet wanted would benefit the people living on it. Most of the time, however, it benefitted only itself. A long time ago, Vincent had called the Planet childish and selfish. Cloud was inclined to agree.

Yet he could never say no to this childish and selfish Planet.

He thought long and hard about what the Seers had just told him. There was no good conclusion to draw. "...are you sure?" He could only ask, hoping against hope that he had heard the instructions wrong. "A delivery to the North? At a time like this?"

The leader of the Seers, a stoned-looking old man known to the world as The Great Seer, nodded.

"I disapprove!" Cloud immediately objected.

"You're not part of the Seer Council, Cloud," Vincent remarked monotonously from beside his friend. He sounded amused at Cloud's outburst.

Cloud turned and look at Vincent. "But--"

"Of all the hired men we have dealt with," the deep voice of another Seer interrupted the duo's conversation, "you have known us for the longest time. You know that what we ask you to do is what the Planet wants. You need no further explanation."

The blond mercenary slammed his hands down on the stone table that was before him. He looked upwards at the Seers, who were each in their own lofty positions of rised, rocky platforms, high above him. "None of you have Cetra blood in you. You don't /know/ for sure what the Planet is saying."

"We were the chosen channel," The Great Seer compounded, his Mako green eyes burning with a strange, luminesce glow. "We convey what the Planet wishes to convey to its inhabitants. No matter if we are not Cetra by birth. We are Cetra by choice and inauguration."

There was a pause.

"Why would the Planet," Cloud asked, his eyes narrowing questioningly, "...want two random mercenaries to deliver a box of rare Ancient artifacts to the Northern Crater to two random men, and then to fetch said two random men back from the North to the Ancient Temple while we're at it? Can't those two men come here by themselves?"

"You are not random mercenaries, Cloud," another of the Seer spoke up, her voice resounding throughout the entire stone chamber. The bright, scintillating lights behind their rocky seats, coupled with their high vantage made it extremely difficult to tell who was speaking, and from where. "Qedem immortalis," the same voice continued to utter. "The Planet needs your help to protect itself. All will be revealed at the end of your destination."

Cloud and Vincent turned to look at each other. The Seer had just called them immortals in the Ancient Tongue. No one but the Planet could possibly have known that they had been immortalised by the alien cells within them; that they had actually lived for thousands of years. This generation of Seers were but eighty years at most, and Cloud and Vincent only started accepting assignments from them five years ago. Cloud sighed. He would never win this argument. Not especially if the Planet was being so stubborn.

"All right," the blond finally mumbled. "We'll take the job." There was slight murmurings of pleasure and agreement from among the Seers, so Cloud quickly added, "...but I want you all to know that the Bazookas won't be letting this go so easily. They've intensified their efforts to eliminate all and anything associated with the Seers lately. Several towns under 'suspicion' have already been toasted to bits. I don't mind being toasted to bits, but what if they steal this important thing we're supposed to deliver to the North?" He shook his head. "They'll grow more powerful, and you're all likely going to be destroyed. Who will talk to the Planet on the people's behalf thereafter?"

"Someone else will rise up to the task," The Great Seer replied easily. "The Planet will continue to send representatives to speak with its people."

"You don't care about your lives, do you?" Cloud asked, quietly.

"We merely convey what the Planet wants us to convey," was the emotionless reply.

For a split second, Cloud's eyes became downcast. He smiled the tiniest of smiles and shrugged. "What do we have to do this time?"

The Council took a couple of seconds to speak among themselves. Something then glowed and materialised on top of the stone table Cloud and Vincent were standing behind. Upon closer examination, the duo saw that it was a plain looking wooden box. They turned to look at each other, then at the Council.

"You are to bring the box to the Northern Crater," The Great Seer explained, gesturing slightly as he did. "...to the two men there. They will be waiting for you. Pass it on, and instruct them to keep strict guard over it if they ever wish to return to where they came from. They are unable to come to us without aid because they do not have the Lunar Harp to traverse the Sleeping Forest. As for any other questions you may have for this mission," the old man held a hand up to stop Cloud from speaking, for there were already questions forming on the blond's lips, "...they will be answered after your return."

Cloud's lips were still slightly parted, his question almost spoken. He frowned, before closing his mouth. "Great Seer," when he next spoke, it was with formality, "you're hiding something from us."

The Great Seer did not reply.

"Nevermind," the blond shrugged, taking the box and keeping it in a safe compartment of his worn travel cloak. He tilted his head at Vincent, who nodded and turned to exit the room. Cloud was right behind him. "We'll discuss the payment for this mission after we come back." He turned slightly to regard the Council over his shoulders. "I'm warning you," his voice was loud and firm, "...if the Bazookas give me more problems that a mere showdown or two, this mission is going to /cost/."

He did not wait for a reply. The stone door to the chamber rolled upwards to allow him exit. Cloud stepped outside, and the door rolled back down, leaving the Council to their disquieting thoughts and lingering regrets.

"Great Seer," a lady from the Left Council spoke up, turning to look at her leader, "...the boy was right. There was no need to hide the identity of the two men they are to be bringing here from them. It will only cause more problems for the mission than it already is beset with."

"We should not have sent them in the first place," a man from the Right Council remarked.

"But there is no one more versed with the ways of Materia than they are," another argued.

"The Bazookas fight with ancient Materia and strategies," The Great Seer finally spoke. "They resist the Seers because they think we misrepresent the Planet. They think that their being able to use Materia - magic from the Planet - gives them the right to decide for it. The methods they use are old, and the magic, unfathomable. We are powerless against them - we can only hear the Planet, but we cannot fight for it." He pointed, and a flow of Mako started to pool together in mid-air, reflecting the room clearly on its surface. A short while later, though, the images on it changed into that of something else. That of two men, bent over an apparatus that was something like a control panel, seemingly puzzled over something on it. "And so if the Planet decrees that two ancient war heroes must be summoned to deal with the resisters at hand..."

The Great Seer clenched his outstretched hand into a fist. The pool of Mako dispersed into nothingness.

"...then so be it. So... be it."

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
17.oct.2005


	2. Chapter 2

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Two  
I just want to flee from this nightmare and never return.

 

"Why are the Seers always hiding things from us?"

Cloud's voice cut through Vincent's thoughts. The latter opened his eyes, finding himself staring at the ceiling of the airship cabin they shared. He blinked. Once. Twice. Sat himself up. Truth be told, he had no ready answer to that question. After all, he did not quite care if the Seers had secrets they could spill or not. Everybody had some. Cloud, however, was always rather upset about it.

"Why does it bother you?" Vincent then asked. He spoke while he sat up from his reclining position against the bedpost.

Cloud was seated on the cabin stool, slouched and restless. Vincent briefly wondered if he was thinking, or if he was trying to distract himself from his motion sickness. Cloud was still gripping the wooden box they had been entrusted with. "I want to know what the Planet is really saying."

Vincent shrugged. "We've known this petty Planet long enough not to expect an honest reply in times of trouble."

"It's not that..." Cloud sighed. "...we're all pawns of the Planet in the greater scheme of things. I've learnt that a long time ago," he raised his eyes to look evenly at Vincent, "I just... I just have a bad feeling about this mission. It's a feeling..." he paused, eyes darting furtively about the cabin, trying to find the right words to say, "...that I haven't had since then..."

A sombre hush settled over. Neither Cloud nor Vincent needed to guess what 'then' referred to.

The silence was broken by a soft beeping sound. Both Cloud and Vincent turned to the corner where they had thrown their belongings. It was Vincent who stood up from the bed to walk over. He bent slightly to rummage through the mess, standing up only when he had retrieved the PHS from somewhere inside. He stared at it. The PHS screen flickered and reflected its faint glow on his pale face. He continued staring at it. Cloud frowned.

"You forget how to use the PHS /again/?" The blond queried, already halfway standing from his chair, ready to help.

"No," Vincent drawled. "It seems like we have just received a message from the Seers."

Cloud waited for Vincent to relay the message.

"...you forgot how to read the message." He then stated dully, when Vincent did not reply for a long time.

"Hmm..." Vincent was still looking at the PHS. "Is this the button?" He pressed something. The screen went black. "...no, it is not." He looked at Cloud. Cloud looked back. Wordlessly, Vincent threw the apparatus over.

Cloud caught it without any difficulty. He stared at it. Vincent had pressed the power button. Cloud was not sure if Vincent was truly ignorant or if he just did not want to see the message. Restarting the PHS, he navigated to the message that had just been received. "It's from the Seers all right," he announced. Vincent merely nodded in assent. The next bout of silence was because Cloud was reading the message. "They're sending escorts along with us for this mission," he continued, a slight frown marring his otherwise blank features. That appearing to be all the message contained, he lowered the PHS and turned his attention to Vincent.

"Escorts?" Vincent tilted his head to a side.

"Seems like there have been changes to the continent formation of the Icicle Area..." Cloud pondered over what he had just said. He lifted up the PHS again and tapped a few buttons. It brought up a holographic image of the Icicle Area continent, with a few useful tidbits of information, covering terrain type to weather. "Vincent, when was the last time we updated the map?"

"Yesterday," the man answered.

"How can there be such a drastic change in /one day/ that we'd require /escorts/ to take us to the Northern Crater?" Cloud wondered aloud.

Vincent shrugged. "It's not impossible."

As if on cue, the airship jerked. It had been cruising along rather quietly all the while, so the jerking came as an unwelcome shock. There was a large, hollow and metallic sound that accompanied the jerk. It was like something huge had hit the roof of the airship. Cloud, closest to the small, round window, immediately glanced outwards. Vincent joined him in the next moment.

Outside, it was pure white with sporadic glimpses of heavy gray. The whiteness was caused by the rapidly descending drops of snow. Behind the snow, dark clouds gathered in throngs. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. The wind was billowing at a speed that must have been strong enough to disrupt the shields of the airship. The airship was back in control after that nasty jerking just now. But the situation did not look optimistic. They had to pull away from the centre of the snowstorm immediately, or risk destruction, once enough snow had pummelled through the airship shields.

"I'll go help the people in the cockpit," Vincent stated. With a grand sweep of his utterly battered red cape, which blinded Cloud momentarily in its wake, Vincent stepped quickly out of the cabin room.

Cloud continued staring at the sight beyond the window.

"A very, very bad feeling."

\--

"Lord Strife, Lord Valentine!" A man, decked from head to toe with protective gear against the snow, greeted the duo upon their disembarkment from the airship. The wild winds whipped the heavy-looking cloth about his form violently. "It is a great honour to have received an assignment from the Seers. We..." he gestured to the entourage of about ten men behind him, "...are glad to be of service to you. Please allow us to lead the way. The snowstorm is raging today."

"What's going on here?" Cloud asked, as they followed the man back to the group of escorts that were huddling together beneath a foothold that jutted out of a nearby mountain. Upon closer examination, he noticed that there were several chocoboes seated there as well, together with the men.

"Ever since the Bazookas started to mine Planet Lifeforce from wherever it is they are mining it from," the man, evidently the leader, as when he gestured, all the other men stood to attention, "...the Planet has been complaining. Mostly via drastic weather changes. It isn't as obvious in the other places as it is here. The weather can change from bright and sunny to torrential and freezing in a mere moment's time span."

Cloud noted with slight fascination that the chocoboes had white tipped feathers, but a black sheen of underfur. He had never quite seen this kind of chocobo before. "It strikes me as strange that the Seers haven't just ordered people to storm through the Bazookas' headquarters and be done with this so-called menace," he remarked offhandedly.

The leader led two chocoboes to the duo, and handed them each one rein. "To be honest, I think nobody really knows where the Bazookas are hiding out in. The Seers /could/ know, but it's like they always prefer us 'peasants' to solve our problems ourselves, if you get what I mean," he chuckled mirthlessly. "Then, there's the fact that they draw on the Planet's Lifeforce to cast magic spells. Nobody in this world knows how to use magic anymore - not even the Seers! Nobody even knows if those stories we read in the fairytales about magic spells and great heroes were true facts or not, until the Bazookas showed us that they were. And frankly I think that not a person on the Planet knows how to deal with magic." He shrugged.

"Sounds despondent," Vincent muttered morosely from atop his bird. He had clambered on in the time the leader had used to explain his views. Cloud was still staring at the chocobo. In particular, he was staring at a single feather he had ruffled up from the bird.

Seeing Cloud's apparent interest, the leader coughed for attention. "I must have neglected to introduce these fine feathered friends of ours, eh?" The chocobo warked in reply. "Meet the Gray-Feathers. They're a new species recently bred in the Icicle Area to combat the ever changing weather and terrain here. Black undercoat to withstand the cold, white overcoat to reflect the sun. Tough as a behemoth to boot!" He tickled the chocobo under its chin, and it warbled soothingly.

"Does it cross oceans?" It was Vincent.

"Well, we haven't tried /that/ out yet, though they /can/ fly for short distances." The man pat the chocobo on the beak and turned. "We're setting off immediately. If nothing goes terribly wrong, we should be at the Northern Crater by early afternoon."

"I wonder what could go terribly wrong that hasn't already," Vincent's lips turned upwards slightly in a knowing smile. The leader slowed down in his steps slightly, but did not turn back. He shrugged, then hastened towards his own chocobo. "Well, Cloud," Vincent addressed his comrade, when the leader was out of earshot. "...it looks like your premonition may be right after all."

Cloud was not saying anything in reply. He was staring rather dazedly at the chocobo before him, his eyes glazed over and wide.

"...Cloud?" Vincent tried again.

This time, Cloud snapped out of his reverie. "Huh?" He blinked once and turned to look at Vincent, his confusion evident in his eyes. He let out a sigh, and put a hand to his forehead. "Sorry," he apologised, evidently realising he had been spacing out. "...I just... my... my head..."

"..." Vincent seemed to understand. "You should rest," he said, flatly.

"No..." Cloud whimpered. Vincent could not be sure if Cloud was answering him, or someone else he could not hear. The blond then straightened himself, taking in a huge breath as he did. "I'm all right," he declared, turning to face Vincent squarely. As if challenging him to think otherwise. There was a strange sort of resignation in his eye. "Let's go." He mounted his chocobo and reined it to follow the already leaving escorts.

Somewhere in the distance, Vincent was not the only one gazing with mixed feelings at the departing group of people.

\--

"Why the sudden change of mind?" Vincent found himself asking Cloud later, when the journey had stretched and their spirits were more or less mellowed. Their chocoboes tottered along each other, side by side.

Cloud's shoulders jumped somewhat. "What change of mind?" He turned to look at Vincent from the corner of his eyes.

Vincent pretended he did not see Cloud's apprehension. He rode forward slightly. "You were not so enthusiastic about the mission at first." He explained. "What made you change your mind?"

"I heard..." Cloud immediately opened his mouth brashly to reply. He quickly realised his answer was bound to get him into even deeper trouble, so he closed his mouth and looked away. "...nothing."

After that, there was nothing but the sound of the rushing Northern winds and the soft crushing of snow by a few chocobo feet.

"What did the Planet tell you?" Vincent's sudden question gave Cloud another surprise. He could feel his heart racing faster from guilt and skittish fear. "I've known you long enough," the man shrugged, "...I know that the Planet sometimes talks to you. I've seen it enough times to be able to tell."

Cloud sighed, neither denying nor accepting Vincent's accusation and explanation. "I know who we're going to be bringing back..." he whispered softly, his voice almost drowned by the whipping winds. "...I just want to flee from this nightmare and never return..."

Few things, other than his lack of self-worth and inferior complex, could drive Cloud to such escapism - Vincent well knew. Possibilities now began to race through Vincent's head. He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Don't tell me..."

There was a shout from somewhere in front. Due to the heavy snow, the visibility was rather bad, and all sounds were muted. Cloud and Vincent spared a second to meet each other's knowing glances. The next moment, when an anguished cry from in front reached their ears, they dived into action immediately.

"It's the Bazookas!" Someone from behind them shouted and pointed at the large flag that the resistance group always carried with them whenever they were on a mission. Cloud willed the chocobo faster forward, leaping over two motionless bodies - both of whom he recognised to be part of the escort group. In front of them, through the thick billowing of snow, were two gleaming green lights.

"They're using materia," Vincent mumbled from beside him. "I'll take care of the two men here. You go ahead," he gestured, parking his chocobo next to the two fallen men. Cloud nodded, knowing Vincent would honour his word.

His sword was out of its sheath in an instant, his barriers in place. The next spell - a deafening Thundara - came quickly. It took down his barrier, but that had given him enough time to race forward and take out the two shocked Bazooka soldiers standing there. Once they were unconscious, Cloud confiscated their materia, wondering briefly how they managed to advance it to such a high level. He quickly dismissed those thoughts, for the pre-emptive materia was glowing in his armour. Quickly using sense, he managed to locate the other Bazooka soldiers still in the area. He smirked, placing the two materia he had just picked up into his sword slots. With no warning whatsoever, he toasted their butts with a light but effective Thunder spell.

Yelps could be heard from all directions. Cloud had been so preoccupied with his thoughts previously that he had failed to notice the escorts had brought them into a valley with high cliff walls on both sides. The enemy had surrounded them from all directions just now, making passage slightly impossible. But that spell just now should have forced them to beat a hasty retreat until they were able to regroup and come up with a new plan. He removed the two materia and kept them in his pouch.

"Vincent, how are they?" He asked, the moment his chocobo brought him back to the area where the escorts were.

Vincent glanced momentarily at him, then stood from his crouched position on the ground where the two men were. The two men were sitting upright, and looked slightly disorientated. But otherwise, they appeared healthy. "Gave them a couple of Phoenix Downs and Potions. They should be all right."

They helped the men up, then addressed the other escorts. "All right, the Bazookas have retreated for now," Cloud said in a quiet voice. "But not for long, if my guess is correct. We need to hurry up and get past this valley before they strike again. Lead the way. And quickly."

The leader, who had spoken to them at the start of the journey, stepped forward. "Thank you for saving my men." He paused, as if trying to find the right words. "...the Bazookas are likely after the cargo of the Seers. I suggest we split up to route the enemies, then come together again at the foot of the Crater."

"I'm afraid I don't understand why that's necessary," Vincent shook his head.

"Listen!" The leader suddenly snapped, making wild gestures with his hands. "It...It's not like we took on this mission because we wanted to!" His facade was breaking down, his usual manners slipping away. "The moment we took on any projects from the Seers, we put us and our entire families into danger with the Bazookas! We can't just die here! Who'll protect our families if we do? If we continue sticking together, we're going to be all wiped out! At least if we split up, we can spread the enemy resources thin! It'll be easier to handle them. So please, let's just split up for now! It won't kill you to split up for just a while!"

Vincent's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You talk as if your world is already over--"

"Vincent," Cloud interrupted. "Let's do as they say. We'll regroup at the foot of the Crater."

"That is not a wise thing to do, especially since--"

"Since I'm going to suffer a Mako withdrawal anytime soon?" Cloud shrugged. "I know. I always go into withdrawal sometime after the Planet tries to drum something in my head." There was a faraway look in his eye as he glanced upwards - towards an unseeable spot in the north. "...but it doesn't matter anymore."

"Cloud--"

"Lead the way, leader!" Cloud turned his chocobo away and spoke to the escorts, who were more than happy to comply, none of them seeming to have understood what Cloud and Vincent had been talking about just now. He did, however, turn back to address Vincent one last time. And with an impeccable grin, too. "Hey Vincent!"

The man cocked his head to a side to indicate that he was listening.

"Race you to the Crater!"

\--

The rest of the journey went surprisingly smoothly. Cloud followed the leader of the escorts into a side path along with a few other people. Vincent continued on the mountain path. The blond understood why the escorts - especially the leader had seemed so jittery throughout the journey. He suspected there to be, however, a stronger reason besides mere fear for the loss of their families, for them to be quaking so much at the mere name of the Bazookas.

"Hey," Cloud rode briskly forward to come in line with the leader. His voice made the man jump. "I was just wondering... how did the Bazookas know we were bringing Seer cargo up north?"

The leader bit his lower lip. "They're the Bazookas. You know, so-called Saviours of the Planets. They know stuff like these."

"If they're really so great, they wouldn't resort to ambush and holding innocent people hostage, would they?" Cloud shrugged. This made the other man bite his lower lip harder. Cloud chuckled. "Don't worry," he said, his voice toneless. "I know. I know what they told you. The Bazookas promised to curb the extreme weather changes in the Icicle Area for you, didn't they?" He was pleased to note that the leader spun around with wide eyes. "They promised to help you out with a new energy source, didn't they?"

"How did you--"

Cloud held a hand up and shook his head. "Why did you believe them?" He cut the leader short.

The man turned away, a frown in his features. "There's nobody else to believe. The Seers have governed the world for thousands of years, yet the things they do are never always for the good of the people." He snorted. "And they've caused the entire Icicle Area to be flooded with frequent snowstorms just so they could deal with a group of so-called misfits!!"

"It probably hasn't occurred to you that the Seers are victims of their own circumstances, huh?"

"I don't care!" The leader roared. "I don't believe the Seers anymore! If there's anybody - any group in the world I can count on anymore, it'll be the Bazookas! They've got it going for them! They've got the Planet's support! I--"

"Sir!" An escort who had been behind suddenly rode forward. He seemed rather out of breath. "Sir... w...we're under attack from the Bazookas from behind!"

"What?!" The leader gasped.

"Sir!" Another escort appeared from the thick snow behind. He was riding with a pillion, who was also among the escort group. "We stopped to let the pregnant chocobo rest for a while, but the Bazookas blasted a spell at us! We managed to get away, but the chocobo's gone, and my partner's hurt!! We'd better hurry before they catch up!"

Cloud could feel his blood boil. "Isn't that against the agreement they had with you?" He asked the leader, his blue eyes burning with anger. The leader could no longer give a reply. "Get to the Crater," Cloud ordered, and unsaddled himself from the chocobo. He handed the reins over to the man who had a pillion on his chocobo. "Get him on this chocobo. Chocoboes move faster with less weight." That said, he turned and moved in the opposite direction to intercept the approaching enemies.

"Wait!" The escort leader cried out. "What do you think you're doing?!"

The man could see Cloud shrug. "Just doing what I should be doing."

And the snow covered him whole.

"Leader! We should listen to the young man!" Cloud could hear one of the other escorts shouting out to the whole group from behind him. He was satisfied to hear the leader mumble something that sounded like a curse, then the rapid thumping of chocobo feet fading into the background. He hastened on his own route, finding the defeated mother chocobo quickly. It was a terrible blast to her abdomen, but at least Cloud was sure she died instantly. Why was it that he kept hearing warking sounds, though? Frowning, he turned the chocobo around.

He could feel a gasp caught in his throat.

Two baby chocoboes, still covered with the blood of their mother, warked for help.

"There he is!" Someone shouted from behind Cloud. A Thunder spell dug into Cloud's side, severing the strings that held the Seers' box secured to his belt and giving him a nasty wound. The box was about to fall in among the chocobo babies. Cloud quickly reached out to grab it. This movement, though swift, left him open to attacks. He spotted, one moment too late, the blast of Ultima that came hurtling towards him from right before his eyes.

From the foot of the Norther Crater, Vincent could see a halo of green and a mushroom of thick, gray smoke. There was an earth-shaking explosion that made the escorts with him murmur with speculation. From the distance, there were the sounds of many chocobo scuttling towards where Vincent was standing. "Cloud..." Vincent knew he should be reassured that he could already see the other entourage coming by.

But somehow, he was not.

Somewhere else, where the waves of the icy seas lapped the sand, a man in black lay spread-eagled, his eyes opened, staring at at the vast expanse in the skies above. His immaculate getup was marred only by the single piece of seaweed that lay strewn across his long, silver locks. Beside him, a six foot long sword stood upright, stabbed into the sand by some strange force.

As if they had both been tossed down from the heavens above.

"This is the last time," Sephiroth grumbled, frustrated green eyes still looking at the sky, "...I'm letting Zack touch the goddamned reactor's control panel."

It suddenly rained.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
25.oct.2005


	3. Chapter 3

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Three  
The past shapes the future.

 

"Where is Cloud?" Vincent asked, the moment Cloud's escort group met up with his at the foot of the Crater. He noticed with a sinking feeling that there were a couple of hurt men in the group. And that there was no Cloud. "Where is he?" He asked again, when nobody gave him a reply.

"He..." The leader of the escorts finally managed with a gulp, "...he turned back to fend off the Bazookas..."

"And you did not wait for him?" There was a rather calm kind of anger beneath Vincent's voice, which made the leader tremble, just as a gust of wind blew. Vincent could not tell what he was trembling from - fear, or the wind.

"I..." The leader tried to find words to explain his stand. He was a nervous wreck, after having his cards laid bare by Cloud just now. Vincent seemed to be doubly more observant. If Cloud could see through the escort team's guise so easily, he had no doubt Vincent must have already done the same. "I..."

"Not a word more," Vincent cut the man off. He spared a cursory glance at the wounded men in the group. "These men require proper medical attention. And quickly. We must complete this mission without anymore casualties." He pointed one gloved finger in the direction of the Crater. "Lead the way," he ordered.

The next question, the escort leader knew, should have remained unasked. Yet he could not proceed with all good conscience, if he did not ask it. "Wh...What about Lord Strife...?"

This time, when Vincent frowned at them, there was a rather unpleasant glow in his crimson eyes. "Are you volunteering to return to bring him here?" This hushed the men into a deathly silence. "We will comb the area for him after we finish our jobs. Until then, to stop here and go back will be tantamount to failure. That's the last thing Cloud would have wanted." He shook his head. "Are you going to lead the way up or not?"

"Yes, sir!" The leader immediately snapped to attention. He quickly took charge of the formation, and everybody complied meekly. When at last they were more or less regrouped, the leader looked to Vincent for the signal to proceed. There was something dangerous about the way Vincent carried himself, and his hulkingly huge Death Penalty gun, that suddenly made him rather fearsome.

If Vincent revered in the fact that he was fearsome to others, his facade was blank enough to hide it.

"Let's mosey."

Said he.

And suddenly, he was not so fearsome anymore.

\--

The rest of the journey up the Crater went uninterrupted, except for the few random monsters who had managed to slip their way through. Vincent took care of most of them, leaving the weaker ones for the escorts to handle. Soon, they were atop the rim of the Crater, staring down at the pool of aqua liquid that was churning within.

Vincent stared at the Crater. And stared. And stared. And stared. Until finally, the leader of the escorts trotted up to him nervously, asking, "Um... Lord Valentine... wh...what should we do now?"

The man did not answer, except with a hardly audible mumble. "A few thousand years have passed, and yet you have not completely healed from this wound yet...?"

"Sir...?" The escort leader frowned, hearing the words but not understanding them. This time, Vincent moved his line of sight away from the bottom of the Crater to the man. He looked at the escort leader, his eyes piercing and stern. The leader found that he was rendered motionless by the aura emitted by Vincent. There was something about Vincent's eyes that made him gulp. They seemed to glow with a faint, unnatural light. Like eyes of prey, ready to tear its victim apart, flesh to soul. The fleeting, compounding sensation quickly passed, however, when Vincent switched his glance to look over the leader's shoulder, instead of directly in his eyes.

Instinctively, the escort leader turned around to look at what Vincent was looking at.

"HEEY!!" A loud, cheerful voice could be heard, before the owner of the voice burst through the low visibility of the snowstorm. The person had black hair, spiked out at the most impossible angles. He also had a ridiculously large grin slapped across his face. And he was waving much too happily than a person supposedly lost at the Crater should be. "HEY!!! YOU GUYS!!!" He continued shouting. "There is LIFE around here! Thank goodness!" By this time, he had reached the group of people. He paused to catch his breath, and as he bent over, the large sword strapped across his back became suddenly apparent.

Vincent's eyes widened momentarily. He had seen that sword. He had seen this entire getup before. "You..." Vincent spoke out, and the spikey-haired man glanced upwards at him questioningly. "...you...are from SOLDIER."

The escort guards all took turns to scratch their heads and shrug at one another. The spikey-haired man alone was unconfounded. He grinned even wider, if it was possible, than he was already grinning.

"Pleased to know meet ya!" He saluted briefly. "The name's Zack! Sorry to be interrupting whatever you're out here doing, but... can any of you tell me the way back to Midgar?" He put a hand behind the back of his head sheepishly as he did this. "And while we're at it, you don't happen to have seen General Sephiroth anywhere around, have you?"

It took Vincent a while before he finally opened his mouth.

"It is said that the past shapes the future," he mumbled, his tone as cryptic as ever, "...but never so dramatically... never so literally..."

The escorts and Zack could do nothing but stare at each other in mutual confusion.

\--

It was a gloomy day. The weather was bad. It was raining. No birds flew overhead. There was no sun.

Sephiroth sighed.

He pulled himself into a sitting position and removed the piece of seaweed in his hair. Giving the terrain a quick glance to assess it, Sephiroth concluded immediately that he was washed up a beach somewhere. For as far as he could see, the waters stretched up ahead, disappearing into the horizon. Standing, he pulled the Masamune out from the ground and kept it. He turned, noticing that the beach was not a wide one. Just two steps away from the crashing waves was a stretch of iceland. Beyond that, was a looming forest, decked with snow and frozen in ice.

Again, Sephiroth sighed.

"Looks like that reactor explosion blew us really far away from Midgar..." He frowned to himself. "...wait. Where is that blockhead?" He started examining the surroundings more carefully. On the small stretch of beach where he was currently standing on, he could see no Zack. That meant that there was only one last place left to look. He shook his head. "Why is it that every time I go on a mission with Zack things always end up contrary to my expectations?" He grumbled unhappily to himself. "And I should stop talking to myself, really," he nodded. "It'll only make me go insane faster than I already am."

While he said all these, he had stepped into the snowy forest and was looking around. There was no enemy that he could see immediately, no monster of any sort. The covered canopy of the trees in the forest also blocked out much of the rain, letting in only a few drops. This made it easier for him to catch his bearing. He moved as soon as he decided that it would be safe to start heading south. For a long while, nothing but silence and the scrunching of snow beneath his boots accompanied him. He was quite determined to get out of the forest, and was nearing the southern border when he stopped suddenly.

There were bloodstains on the ground.

Sephiroth stared at the bloodstains. They trailed back into the forest in another direction. It was not possible that Zack could have fallen to a random monster in the forest - him being a SOLDIER 1st and all, but Sephiroth knew the value of being safe than sorry. He started to follow the trail. As he did, he noticed something strange about it. It was not a trail of blood drops, as it would have been if it was someone walking while wounded. Instead, it looked more like lines, making it seem like either the bleeding thing was dragging itself, or someone was dragging it along.

Interesting, thought the General. Very interesting.

His high hopes for something exciting to keep him occupied before he regrouped with his second-in-command and headed back to dreary Midgar, however, was crushed as soon as he reached the source of the bloodstains.

It was a chocobo, slumped neatly in a mound near a large tree. Someone must have leant it against the tree, for when Sephiroth examined the bird, he knew that it had been dead for a rather long time now. Dead birds simply do not rearrange themselves nicely in sitting positions after being dragged for long distances. At that, his ears perked up. Somewhere nearby, there was the sound of something large and hard hitting the ground. If he listened even more carefully, he thought he could hear the gentle warking of one, or two more chocoboes.

Knowing there was nothing more he could do for the dead chocobo by the tree, Sephiroth started to trace the source of the sound. It was nearer than he thought. Just a few trees away, there was a clearing. There was someone there, plunging a rather large sword into the ground and lifting it up, much like he was using it as a shovel.

Sephiroth carefully masked his presence and hid himself behind a border tree, trying to see what the man was doing. The first thing he noticed about the strange man was that his hair was wild and golden, spiking out in ways that reminded him somewhat of Zack's. The next thing he noticed, was that there were two baby chocoboes seated quietly beside him. One of the chocobo was pure white, so white that it would have blended in completely with the snow-clad floor, had its eyes not been a deep shade of black. The other chocobo, completely black, was like a vortex in the entire place. The richness of its black feathers was rivalled only by the richness of its dark eyes.

The two baby chocoboes were far enough not to be hit by the sword the man was using, but close enough to be petted if he just bent slightly and stretched his hand out. And that was precisely what the strange man did, as he took a breather from his digging job and played for a bit with the two baby chocoboes while bent on one knee. He paused slightly to put his massive sword on the ground, using his free hand to hold his head while wincing.

Sephiroth decided that now was a good time to show himself. He walked out from his hiding place behind the tree noisily and called out. "Hey!" Immediately, the man and two birds were on guard. The chocoboes jumped to their feet and stared at Sephiroth. They looked like they were ready to dash towards the intruder and peck him to death anytime. Ignoring them, Sephiroth continued, "Excuse me for bit, but do you happen to know where this place is?"

Only the man remained unmoving, but he was still obviously on guard. Slowly, very slowly, his hand stretched towards the sword he had just laid on the ground. He turned his head around. Sephiroth was surprised, when their eyes met. The other man had pale blue eyes which glowed with faint iridescence. Those were not normal eyes, and Sephiroth of all people knew that.

Those were the eyes of a SOLDIER.

Confusion swirled in the blond's eyes for a while. It was as if he was having difficulty deciding what to think about the current situation. Recognition soon became evident in his clouded eyes. "You..." He suddenly exclaimed, his eyes wide with worry and a brief flash of... excitement? "Se...Sephiroth..."

Whatever the blond had been intending to say after that was shelved. His eyes suddenly lost all spark and life. In a brief, fluid motion, his entire body tipped forward and he landed face-first on the ground beneath him.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
3.nov.2005


	4. Chapter 4

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Four  
In a world without words.

 

When the strange blond fell, the baby chocoboes stopped glaring at Sephiroth. They warked frantically and circled the collapsed blond. Sephiroth himself was rather surprised at the sudden turn of events. He knew that his name was spoken with whispered reverence in Midgar, no thanks to the horribly exaggerated propaganda dribble Shinra fed the citizens there with daily, but to cause a person - a grown man who looked rather strong too, to faint? Now that was something he had no ready textbook reaction for.

Thus, Sephiroth watched on with strange fascination, until he finally realised that the fainted man was not faking his unconsciousness. He strode over quickly to examine him more carefully. The two baby chocoboes warked noisily at him, daring to peck on his sturdy leather boots. Beak against SOLDIER leather. Not much of a match. Sephiroth soon found himself crouched beside the blond.

He checked for broken bones or bleeding spots. There were none. Well, except for the huge splotch of red on the man's cape which looked like it belonged to the dead chocobo back by the tree. So he must have been the one who dragged the chocobo here. Turning, Sephiroth looked at the hole in the ground the man had been trying to make. Was he making a grave for the dead bird? A wistful thought passed by Sephiroth's mind in a fleeting moment. He wondered if anyone would make graves for him after he died.

As the rain began falling more intensely, however, Sephiroth knew that this was not the time to be thinking about his morbid end. After ensuring that the blond would suffer no fatal brain damage if he got tossed over a shoulder and carried like a sack of potatoes somewhere, the General did just that. He picked the man's large blade up, as well as whatever scanty belongings the man seemed to have with him. The two baby chocoboes immediately intensified their efforts to peck their way through his boots. Sephiroth sighed, carefully navigating his way around the two frantic birds, trying not to step on them.

Warking indignantly, the birds followed him, making a din while they were at it. Sephiroth pursed his lips, reining in his exasperation. The urge to have bird chops for dinner in the wilderness at night had never seem more attractive. At that particular line of thought, however, he paused. Something tugged at him at the back of his mind. He turned to look one last time at the scene he was leaving.

It suddenly came back to him, what the man had been trying to do - and what /he/ had forgotten to do, when the dead chocobo by the tree once again came into his line of vision.

Gently, Sephiroth set the man on his shoulder back down on the ground. The two baby chocoboes immediately ran to the unconscious man, cooing at him anxiously. "Sorry, stranger," the General said, slowly walking back to the clearing, "...you'll have to be drenched for a little bit more while I settle this."

\--

Vincent was surprised, and slightly upset. He was surprised because the entourage had not been attacked by the Bazookas on their way back from the Crater with Zack. And he was upset because of that too, since he had wanted to question them about Cloud. Zack remained surprisingly silent throughout the trip away from the Crater, for which Vincent was grateful for. He did not know if he would be able to answer the questions the SOLDIER was sure to ask him, sooner or later.

They arrived at Icicle Inn without much difficulty - the only obstacles they had to overcome being the glaciers and the cold. Vincent hopped off the chocobo before it had even crossed the threshold of the Inn entrance. He swept into the reception area with a large movement and slammed a hand - the good one, on the counter.

Unsurprisingly, the staff were stunned by the sudden noise. They gaped at Vincent. What could this tall, brooding, menacing-looking man possibly want from their tiny hotel that they could offer? Would he ask for free rooms? Or a free meal? Free room service, or horrors of horrors, ask to see the manager?

"I need to use the phone," Vincent stated monotonously.

There was a stunned silence.

"I'll take that as a yes," the gunslinger continued, reaching over the counter to pick up the PHS sitting there. By this time, the escorts and Zack had finished disembarking and were slowly filing into the small reception area of the only traveller's lodge in Icicle Inn.

The escorts were tired and disgruntled, but otherwise relieved that they had managed to escape this episode with their lives. Zack merely took in the hotel interior with a sweeping glance, frowning hard. "I don't remember the Icicle Inn being such a big town," he remarked to nobody in particular. "Definitely don't remember having seen this hotel before, either. Can't believe they build things so fast up North!" He giggled to himself, causing some of the escorts to eye him strangely and edge slowly away.

Sensing their unease, but not wanting to delve too much into it, Zack found himself slowly drifting away from where the group gathered, peering at the pictures on the walls of the lodge and examining a few strange looking apparatuses which he had never seen in Midgar before. There was a plain looking machine in a corner, beaming holographic images that seemed almost life-like onto the walls behind it. The lights in the hotel were brighter than any Zack had ever seen in Midgar, and that was certainly saying something, since Midgar had always been the touted source of infinite energy. The chairs and tables were also of strange design. They did not seem to merely seat people or hold things. Just a moment ago, the SOLDIER 1st had saw, from the corner of his eye, one of the guards from the group he came with removing a cup of what looked like a hot drink from an opening in the arm of the chair he was sitting in. The chairs looked metallic enough, yet when someone sat on them it would gently slope inwards, as if it was soft.

Those were strange sights to Zack, to be sure, but there was something even stranger.

The entire room - the entire place. He could not smell a single whiff of Mako from them.

Zack's musings had made him walk about the area a bit, and now he found himself looking at the man with the golden claw. The man had introduced himself as Vincent, if Zack's memory did not fail him. Vincent seemed to be the leader of this strange little group. That meant that all questions should be directed to him, Zack nodded meaningfully to himself. Currently, however Vincent was occupied with something that looked like a PHS. Vincent's face was as calm and composed as ever, but the tapping of his steel-toed boots gave away his fluster.

Being the one man who was able to deal with Sephiroth on a daily basis and survive, however, meant that Zack had the patience of a saint. He waited until Vincent gave up contacting who he had been trying to contact.

Which was taking rather long, for Vincent was not showing signs of giving up. He did, however, notice that Zack was staring at him with an expectant grin on his face. Cloud was not picking up the PHS, Vincent knew, and he was probably not going to pick it up for a while, at this rate. With a heavy heart, Vincent finally hung up. He would try again, but now, there were things he had to attend to first.

\--

Beside a little mound of freshly upturned soil, in a clearing of a silent, frozen jungle, where a buried bird now lay buried; a forgotten PHS stopped ringing abruptly, pushing the forest back into the same silence it had been surrounded with since its inception.

The iceland birds starting crowing again, and the snow crickets resumed their chirping.

\--

Sephiroth struggled to keep a straight face as he approached the stable boy with a burning query.

"I thought this was a traveller's inn."

The stable boy - a young looking lad with bright eyes and freckled cheeks, turned away from feeding a chocobo to look at Sephiroth. "Sure is, sire, last time I checked," he confirmed with an earnest nod. That said and done, he returned to feeding the chocobo.

Sephiroth was not convinced. "There are chocoboes sitting on the chairs at the veranda." He pointed out.

"Them aren't chairs, sire," the stable boy answered easily, his attention still affixed upon the chocobo he was feeding. "They're chocobo warming bays."

Sephiroth made sure to cock an eyebrow in perfect suspicion. "Right."

"And that ain't the veranda, either," the boy continued his explanation, "...just a space fer birds to park their asses down fer'while until them owners come out from the inside."

"Indeed?" Sephiroth wondered aloud. He looked in the direction of the so-called bird warming bay and stared at the greyish chocoboes resting there.

"Well if yer lookin' fer the inn you gotta round the bird warming bay'n go talk to the people at the reception place," the stable boy decided to be helpful. He thought it strange, though, that this grown man had dared ask about the bird bays. Every traveller's inn had at least one nowadays!

"Well, /that/ will certainly prove to be of assistance," Sephiroth had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Thank you for your help," the General offered cordially. He then turned to pick up his baggage, which he had left in a dark, dank corner of the stable outpost.

The uninterested stable boy spun around to give the strange, tall man an acknowledging glance. When he saw what Sephiroth had in tow, however, his jaw dropped. "Hey mister!" He shouted out after the retreating figure of Sephiroth. "Dead bodies and baby chocoboes ain't allowed in the reception area!"

\--

"Say what?"

Vincent tilted his head. He knew Zack was not asking him to repeat himself, so he did not. Instead, he asked, "You do not believe me?"

"Of course I don't!" Zack shook his head and gestured wildly. "You don't just believe some random guy when he comes up to you to tell you that you're no longer living in the right time period, do you?!"

"Perhaps," Vincent did not commit. He had led Zack into a side-room of the reception area and closed the door, so they could carry out conversation without leaking too many details to anyone out of the loop. "But you are a SOLDIER. Surely you can tell from the little things you have seen so far, whether or not I am speaking the truth."

"I..." Zack opened his mouth to immediately deny that outright, when it came to him. The unseen technology, the sudden change of infrastructure in the Icicle Inn - and above all, the fact that he could not smell a single bit of Mako. "...I was never too well known for being a thinker," he admitted sheepishly, with a sigh. "Okay, so assuming you weren't lying; what in the /world/ am I supposed to do now?! You're not going to tell me I'm stuck here and unable to go back to where I came from, are you?!"

As Zack rampaged on in the side room, there was a rampage going on outside as well. Someone, most likely the receptionist, was screaming at someone. Through the tightly shut doors of the side room, Vincent could hear muffled sentences of 'Sir! You can't bring baby chocoboes into the reception area!', and 'Dead bodies are not allowed in the hotel, sir!'. That was certainly an interesting commotion going on outside, the man mused to himself. Still, he tuned out whatever was going on outside and returned his attention to Zack, who was still waiting for an answer from him.

"That is why you need to see the Cetra Seers," he stated. "They are the only ones who know how to send you back."

"Well, isn't that convenient," Zack snorted. He folded his arms across his chest. "And the next thing you're going to tell me is that there's actually a /reason/ why I've suddenly been transported from my time to your time, huh?"

Vincent could not help the knowing smile that tugged at the corners of his lips. "How did you know?"

It was after a long silence that Zack finally decided he had had enough nonsense for a day. "I'm going to sleep on that thought for tonight." He drifted shakily towards the door. His head was reeling, but it would be better by tomorrow. He was probably just having a strange dream. A hangover of sorts from yesterday, yes! After all, that blast from the Mako reactor had been rather loud and nasty. He knew he would not be surprised to woke up the next day and find himself lying in the SOLDIER infirmary, with an exasperated Sephiroth beside him, lecturing him on the fine points of reading the user manual before attempting to fix a reactor. He chuckled mirthlessly to himself.

"We are not going to rest here tonight," Vincent's voice, however, dragged Zack back to unwanted reality. It was only right, the SOLDIER felt, therefore, to turn around and throw Vincent an Evil Eye of questioning. Vincent continued, "We will be catching the next airship to to Mideel. I need to speak with the Seers about something urgent, as soon as possible."

"So go alone!" Zack rebutted unhappily. He was pouting. Vincent looked at him with an expression of strange amusement on his face for a brief second. Then it was overshadowed by something darker; more sombre.

"Do you not wish to meet up with Sephiroth again, as soon as possible as well?"

The statement was like a blow to Zack's gut. "Sephiroth is here too?" He asked incredulously.

"You are not dreaming, in case you are still wondering if you are," Vincent helpfully pointed out. "I have no doubt that Sephiroth is here as well, judging from the fact that you must have been with him prior to being sent here." He shrugged. "Well? Will you willingly come with me? Or should I have to cart you there unconscious?"

The gleam in Vincent's eye told Zack that it would certainly be in his best interests to comply.

\--

Sephiroth was trying very hard to keep a straight face. "Those chocoboes are not mine." He stated firmly. The baby chocoboes flapped their wings and warked in agreement. "...and this man is not dead. Yet, anyway. Though he might be if you don't give us a room with a fireplace soon."

The lady at the counter sighed inwardly. Two shocking encounters in one day, within the span of a few minutes. What in the world was a 'fireplace', anyway? Perhaps it was the Planet's way of telling her it was high time she changed occupations. She gingerly started to access the record of available rooms while saying, "Very well, sir, but only if you promise you will not allow the dead...I mean, unconscious man to bleed all over the carpeting..."

"He is not bleeding."

"..." The lady stared at the large patch of blood on the unconscious man's coat. She ignored Sephiroth and carried on, "...I also cannot give you a room until you get your two chocoboes out of the reception area and make sure they don't try to come in again. Company policy, you understand?"

Sephiroth put two fingers against the bridge of his nose and sighed. "For the last time..." he mumbled, ready to go into his long tirade about how it was simply not possible for the two baby chocoboes to be his, not especially since they were obviously trying very desperately to chew a hole through his boots. "...nevermind." He gave up. "I just have to get the two chocoboes out of here, right?" The lady behind the counter nodded. "Very well," Sephiroth said. He turned to walk back out into the open. Unsurprisingly, the birds followed him - or rather, they were following the man on his shoulder. "Make sure there's a room for me when I get back!" The General snapped in his most General-like voice, but the effect was lost on the civilian lady, who merely put on her best business smile, thanked Sephiroth for dropping by and hoped to see him again.

One of the escort guards, who had been witnessing this entire scene from start to finish, nudged the escort leader in his ribs. "Hey, leader," he whispered, almost conspirationally. "...doesn't that guy on his shoulder..." he pointed at the retreating Sephiroth, "...look like Lord Strife?"

The name did catch the leader's attention, but by the time he glanced upwards, Sephiroth had already slipped out of the area, out of sight. "You and your overactive imagination!" He thwapped his subordinate upside the head. Before his subordinate could protest, Vincent and Zack came out from the side room and gestured for the leader. This attracted the attention of all the guards, who wondered if they would have one last job to do, or whether they could now return their tired selves to the comforting warmth of their homes. The leader approached Vincent warily.

"That will be all for your services this time," Vincent spoke in a calm, but loud enough voice, for the benefit of everybody in the lounge. "You are all dismissed."

Leaving those simple words behind, Vincent departed from the area with a loud sweep of his dusty cape. Those who were near him coughed in dismay. Zack trailed behind him unhappily. But, the guards reasoned, at least he did not have a dusty cape.

It was a good minute after Vincent and Zack were no longer within the guards' line of vision that the leader finally spoke.

"Well, boys," he declared, "Let's get home."

There was an unanimous mumble of agreement, even as the guards began to file out of the area, one by one.

The lady behind the reception desk sighed. "I hate it when they barge in, sit for five minutes, and barge out without getting a room."

\--

At this point of time, Sephiroth was back at the threshold of the dark confines of the chocobo stables. "Can you not do anything about them at all?" He implored the stable boy he had spoken with just now, albeit a little demandingly.

"I ain't got no baby chocobo mangers in the stable, sire," the boy said apologetically. "And if you ask me, they seem mighty darn attached to ya. Might be hard to get them to sit in a manger at all."

"Tie them down or something," Sephiroth suggested, then immediately put a hand on his forehead, regretting his childish statement. "Actually, I really do not have time for this. Do you have a fireplace anywhere in this stable?" He inquired wearily.

The stable boy laughed. "Fireplace? You've been readin' too much storybooks, mister. But yeah, it gets cold 'round here at evenin' time, so we've got a heater in the back room." He then gestured towards the deeper darkness of the stable. "Ah don't usually let people just walk'in and use mah stuff, but ah think you might wanna get your friend warmed up soonest possible before he dies or something. There's a small storeroom right in there with a heater. Just make sure yah don't spoil nay-thing, 'kay?" The boy frowned at Sephiroth.

"I am very much in your debt," Sephiroth sighed with relief. True, the stranger he was carrying around needed to be warmed up. But the fact was, /he/ was getting rather cold himself. It would be finally nice to sit beside a source of warmth finally.

"Well dun just stand there, get'in!" The stable boy shook his head. "An' close the door or we'll all be popsicles in another minute!"

"How true," Sephiroth allowed himself a small, sardonic smile. He stepped into the stable and closed the door properly behind him.

Just as Vincent and Zack walked past the little hut.

"I'm expecting," Zack announced as they walked, "...a red carpet welcome when I get there." He folded his arm across his chest, thinking about something. "And a full ten-course dinner," he added. "And a private suite with a huge jacuzzi." He nodded to himself. "Oh, and don't forget the ladies!" He hurried his steps to catch up with Vincent, who had gone way ahead during Zack's intermittent thoughts of granduer. "I'm expecting all of that and more, you hear? Make sure those Cetra Seers people get the message, okay?!"

Vincent mumbled something under his breath, but otherwise, did not deign to reply the SOLDIER.

"Did you hear me or not, hey!" Zack, however, was not about to take no for an answer. He ran faster, so he would now be side by side with the brisk walking Vincent. "Hello~? Vincent? Planet to vampire man?"

Vincent found himself having to reason to himself, that the Seers would want to speak to Zack in one piece, not to a pile of his splattered brains.

As soon as the last vestiges of the duo were covered by the thick, snowy mist, the stable door suddenly flew open. A wide-eyed Sephiroth searched the area quickly, as if for something, or someone, he knew very well. All he saw was the snow, the mist, and a few confused escort guards, who were leading their chocoboes out and away from the warming bay.

"Zack...?" Sephiroth called out experimentally.

There was no reply.

"Mister!" The stable boy shouted from inside. "How many times do ah have to tell ya? Close the bloody door! It's gettin' cold in here!"

"My apologies," Sephiroth immediately answered. He took one last, questioning look at the immediate area outside the stable, before shrugging and closing the door for what would be the last time that night.

\--

The heater, Sephiroth finally found out, was a panel that controlled the heating units of the room. The heating units were some rectangular devices stuck in a few corners of the ceiling wall. The panel was already in operation, so Sephiroth did not have to fiddle with the strange thing to get it started up. After dumping the blond stranger wordlessly onto the nearest pile of dried greens, he took to scrutinising the room. Thankfully, the chocoboes rushed to the blond the moment he hit the ground. Having birds pecking at your boots was quite an impediment to walking properly, after all.

Hmm, the General thought to himself, no smell of Mako. Interesting.

The stable boy had mentioned that he would be busy tending to the chocoboes in the stable for a while, so Sephiroth would have to wait until the boy was free to be able to ask him about anything. He reached into his cape and took out his PHS, flicking it open and trying out Zack's number. Pressing the device against his ear, he could hear nothing but dead silence. Not even a flicker of static, which would be the usual warning sign that he was out of reception. Plain, hushed silence. He closed phone and sighed.

This was quite a predicament he was stuck in.

By now, the sharp warking of the chocoboes had mellowed down to gentle cooing. The two babies had settled down into a ball of fluffy feathers beside the unconscious blond, purring contentedly. Sephiroth noticed, for the first time - though he wondered /how/ he could have missed it in the first place - that the blond's hair bore an uncanny resemblance to that of a chocobo's head feathers.

So the baby chocoboes mistook the blond for their mother bird.

For the next few minutes, Sephiroth had to hold his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.

Those few minutes soon passed. When he had finally composed himself, the General found himself a spot beside the unconscious blond and sat down. There was no time telling device in the little room, which Sephiroth found strange and unsettling. After being blasted in the face with Mako, he was beginning to feel disorientated about almost everything. There were minor similarities in the people, the land, the language and culture. But there were also stark differences that made him wonder.

He wondered if he was even in the right world anymore.

Knowing that this was not the time for mindless speculation, Sephiroth shelved that thought away. He looked at the sleeping blond. This one certainly looked like he had nothing much on his mind. For now, anyway. He found his eyes shifting naturally towards the belongings of the boy. Not that there were much, or that they were fanciful. Much on the contrary, Sephiroth wondered about how scanty they were.

Was this boy seriously thinking about hiking through the entire frozen wasteland of the Icicle Area with supplies that were virtually next to nothing useful for survival?

"A pouch... a sword... a box." That was everything the blond currently had, excluding the things he was wearing. Sephiroth shook the pouch. It clinkered. Peering quizzically inside, he saw currency and the shine of what looked like materia. Fair enough for a traveller. Moving onto the sword, he examined it with an expert's eye. It bore signs of frequent use and excellent craftsmanship. Several materia decorated its slots. Several /powerful/ materia, if Sephiroth might add. He smiled to himself. This young looking face belied what must be a startling nature.

He stopped admiring the sword after a while. As much as broadswords had their advantages, they would never suit his style of fighting. He picked up the final item of possession the blond had. The box. Shaking it, he could not hear anything. Was it padded? He opened the box slowly and looked at what was inside.

There was nothing.

The box was not big enough to be a useful container of food, neither did it offer the suitable protection for any consummables. It was a mere box, perhaps used to hold accessories, or materia - hardy things that could withstand being knocked left and right within an enclosed space. Now, however, it was empty, and as Sephiroth closed the cover of the box, he knew that he would only know what it used to contain by asking the blond when he woke up.

Not that he was terribly interested, of course.

After replacing all the items, Sephiroth relaxed, laid his head slightly backwards, and closed his eyes. He let the howling winds outside the surprisingly steadfast shack accompany him, as he rearranged his thoughts and grew increasingly accustomed to the comfortable warmth that was starting to dull his senses.

In a matter of moments, Sephiroth's thoughts trailed off into the consistent pattern of sleep.

In a world without words, at least he could dream.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
21.nov.2005


	5. Chapter 5

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Five  
Every moment hesitated is a moment gone from life.

 

When the stable boy checked up on his guests and saw that they were resting, he let them be. It was not that he felt a sense of duty, or pity for the two rather awkward travellers, but that he had other things to attend to, and entertaining guests was the last thing on his list of priorities. Besides, if the strangers had no qualms about resting in a place as dirty as generally unwanted as the storeroom, who was he to complain? He grabbed a few more greens and went to tend to the chocoboes in the stable. Those that were still awake needed to be sedated with some special greens so that they would be ready for journeying by the next morning. He would never hear the end of it from the boss if a customer complained that his chocobo was not ready for riding in the morning.

So engrossed was he in his job, that he failed to notice the room door to the store opening and closing quietly. A shadow, swift and silent, slipped out of the room and headed for the stable exit. The only indication that there was a presence whatsoever came in the form of a sharp gust of cold wind that entered the stable suddenly when the stable door suddenly flapped open.

The stable boy turned, just in time to see the exit door swinging back and forth on its hinges, unclasped from its secured position. He blinked once. Twice. The door was still flapping. Standing, he went forward to close and secure the door again. He dismissed the phenomenom as that of a freak accident - they had their fill of those up in the North. After all, the winds were rather strong that particular night. He was surprised, though, to see the black baby chocobo - the one that had been following the strange silver-haired man around the entire day - standing at the threshold of the doorframe, peering out into the open via the small cracks in the wall.

"Shoo, chick, shoo!" The stable boy made wild waving movements. This earned him a baneful glance from the black chocobo, but it did not move. "It's dangerous 'ere, 'kay?" The boy continued, this time bending down to scoop the baby bird up. The bird warked in protest and struggled. But it was no match against the experienced chocobo handler, who swept it up in one hand and effectively pushed it back into the darkness of the stables.

Warking one last time in indignation, the black chocobo pattered away, pushed open the storeroom door and disappeared into it. The storeroom door, unlike the exit, was unlocked and unsecured, and could be easily pushed open if one wanted. It was the first time, however, the stable boy had seen a chocobo - a /baby/ chocobo, no less, push the room door open and slip in like that.

Must be one mighty chocobo, the boy thought absently to himself.

Soon, the stable boy finished his chores and set up his usual hammock in the darkness of the stable. Clambering in, his mind started to replay the events of the day. It had been a while since so much had happened to him in a single day. His thoughts soon began to tire him out. Not long after he laid stretched out in his hammock, his loud, peaceful snores could be heard reverberating throughout the silent stable.

The rest of the night in the stable passed peacefully.

\--

When Vincent and Zack walked into the Seer's meeting room, only the Great Seer was in sight. There were no other Seers flanking him as there always would be. As it /should/ be. The Seers had no ability to speak with the Planet individually. Only when two or more came together, could they understand the Planet properly. Vincent found the situation suspicious, but he let it pass. He had other thoughts on his mind at the moment.

"Great Seer," Vincent began with a sweeping bow, "...we have done as you told. Here is the man you wanted us to bring back."

The Great Seer moved his head slightly to glance downwards. "..." He said nothing for a while, seemingly considering the situation. Then, with a wave of his hand, he said, "Very well... you shall be rewarded greatly for your services. If you will so please, there is something I wish to speak in private with this man here..."

"Great Seer," Vincent cut the old man short. There was an unbelievable aura of danger hidden beneath his voice, that even Zack could feel. "I am afraid your age must be getting to you. Was it not to bring two men back that we were sent out to the North?" His eyes narrowed slightly. "Were you lying to us from the outset?" He paused. "Did you already know that Cloud would be assaulted and go missing en route...?"

"Cloud?" The Great Seer asked.

"Cloud?" And Zack, too. But before he could reach any conclusion, the Great Seer spoke out again.

"He is your friend who spoke with us the last time?" The old man was saying. "Has something happened to him?"

Vincent was not sure if he could believe his ears. The Great Seer, leader of the Cetra Seers, who could talk with the Planet, did not know what had happened to a man whom he sent out on a mission? "I do not take jokes well, sir," Vincent grounded out. He took a step backwards. "Either you tell me what you have up your sleeves, or I shall bring this man away, and with him, all the knowledge he has about ancient warfare that you so desperately need now."

Needless to say, Zack was confounded at the situation, although he was beginning to see a ring of pattern. He wisely remained silent to understand more.

Before long, the Great Seer's voice could be heard. "I see no reason why that will inconvenience us in any way, that I will have to share the secrets of the Planet with the likes of you," he coldly intoned.

"Are you saying that you can take out the Bazookas without his help?" Vincent questioned.

"We shall summon another, if he will not assist us."

"Summoning someone from the past was not an easy thing to do, was it?" Vincent's reply was immediate and harsh. "You will not be able to do it again immediately, will you? And the threat of the Bazooka is immediate." He smiled slightly, reveling in the sudden change of composure in the Great Seer. "When we were up North," he continued, in a grave voice, "we were attacked by the Bazookas. Their warfare is ancient. It is not something modern technology can defeat. You need Zack," Vincent gestured vaguely at in Zack's direction. Zack waved in acknowledgement, a wide grin on his face. "...and the other man you summoned, to win this. And you need to win urgently." He paused. "...before the Planet takes this into its own hands... and wipes out all mankind living on it."

The Seer gasped audibly. "How did you..."

"I have known the Planet for a much longer time than you can ever imagine," Vincent cut him short. "Tell me what is going on. What is the Planet's plan this time? And where is Cloud?"

For a few brief moments, the silence of the Ancient Temple embraced the trio.

Then, the Great Seer sighed. "Very well. Only because I see no other alternative." He relaxed into his stoney seat, evidently having jumped to attention at Vincent's words just now.

"As you already know, the Bazookas are getting fiercer and fiercer in their fighting. Not only that, their forces are also getting bigger, and much more powerful. They not only wish to get rid of the Seers, they wish to take over every city, village, town and continent on the Planet as well..."

"Why would they want to do that for?" It was Zack, who was frowning with his arms folded across his chest. Finally, war and strategy! A topic he was able to relate to! "Seems like you're talking about a really wild bunch of rebels here. What's their motive? World domination?"

Both the Great Seer and Vincent stared at Zack. The last thing they were expecting was to be hearing Zack joining in the conversation. Realising, however, that he would have to explain the situation to Zack eventually anyway, the Great Seer closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I am afraid that is not the only thing they want to do, Ancient Warrior." He slowly opened his eyes. "They wish to take over the life of everybody on the Planet... and take over the Planet itself."

The air became stiffer.

"What do you mean?" Vincent demanded quietly.

"Do you remember what the ancient scrolls record about the Lost City of Midgar?" The Seer asked.

"Midgar's a lost city?" Zack's thoughts practically tripped over themselves. But again, he had no chance to advance to a conclusion, for Vincent quickly carried the conversation on.

"Yes," Vincent said. "You surely don't mean to say..."

"Yes, I surely do not wish it, but it is the truth," the old man sighed restfully. "It seems like the Bazookas have found the Lost City of Midgar. They have discovered the source of the Planet's energy and are using it to their own selfish ends. They think that they know what it is the Planet wishes for its residents, and are sparing no charges in carrying it out. The Planet is not happy that slowly, but surely, it is losing its source of energy. It has given us an ultimatum," the Seer paused to see if his audience was following, before continuing, "...if we do not remove these people soon... soon enough... then the Planet will act... by wiping out all of mankind on its surface."

Zack gave a low hoot. "Well, that's one childish way of ending a squirmish," he remarked. "Tear the whole house down to get rid of the roaches. Veeery logical."

"How soon is 'soon'?" Vincent asked.

"We do not know," the Seer sounded downcast. "But we must act quickly. We have no time to lose..."

Vincent said nothing for a bit. He seemed to be considering his options. When he finally did speak out, it was on something else. "You really don't know what happened to Cloud?"

The Seer did not reply immediately. "The Planet does not always tell us everything."

"Where are the rest of the Seers?" Vincent pressed on.

"They are engaged in conversation with the Planet together," the Great Seer replied. "The Planet had just informed us, prior to your coming, that only two will be returning, and that we are to accept that as a mission accomplished nevertheless. The Planet did not say what has happened to the other two who were supposed to come, although it did say that..."

"Enough," Vincent stopped the man. He stood straight, ready to move away. "Every moment hesitated is a moment gone from life. Since my duty here is done, I shall leave this man into your care. Before I go, however, I wish to know one last thing from you, Great Seer," he bowed formally.

"If I can behold the answer, I shall indeed give you a reply."

"You shall," Vincent's tone was that of surety, "...for I wish to know what was in the box you entrusted into our care."

The Great Seer was silent, perhaps debating whether he would speak the truth or not.

"It contained two orbs of condensed Planet energy," the Seer finally said. "The Bazookas are attempting to harnass the power of these two orbs as well. It is said to be the ultimate magic which when together can dominate even the Planet..."

Vincent remained silent.

"I believe..." The Seer carried on, "...that they used to be known as the black and white materia."

\--

The next morning, the stable boy woke up to severe trembling. As he peeled his bleary eyes opened, he saw - distinctly, the bright morning rays of the Icicle Area sun through an ajar stable exit. He sat up straight, forgetting that he was in a hammock, and as a result, tripped over the wiring and fell flat on the ground. Cursing, he picked himself up and quickly ran to the door, closing it and clamping it shut.

As he made his way back, he had a strange sense of deja vu.

Did he not just close and clamp the very same door shut yesterday night?

"Freaky," the boy mumbled to himself, "...very freaky."

\--

The noise that was the stable boy waking up, tangling himself in his own hammock and subsequently crashing onto the floor jolted Sephiroth from his light slumber. He blinked and took a split second to take in his environment and remember where he was. He put a hand on his head. He felt faint and restless. He probably had not gotten much sleep.

Standing, he stretched to get sensation back into his limbs. As he moved around to warm himself up, he could feel a pair of eyes on him. He glanced in the direction of the intense gaze. It was the baby black chocobo. Sephiroth was not sure how to respond in kind. He had had people of all statuses and backgrounds gazing, even glaring at him before, but never chocoboes. Sighing, he finished up his warm-up routine and walked towards unconscious man he had picked up in the jungle near the beach yesterday.

The white chocobo, which had been curled up beside the blond all this time, suddenly perked up. Upon seeing Sephiroth approach, it leapt to its feet and started warking wildly. The black chocobo was surprisingly quiet today. Yesterday it had been as noisy as the white one. At least the noise had gone down by half, Sephiroth thought wearily to himself. He bent down to check on the unconscious man, to see if he was still breathing. Unfortunately, he was. Sephiroth sighed. This meant that he could not go out to look for Zack by himself yet.

Whimsically, Sephiroth cast a Cure on the blond. The blond did not stir. He tried a Life. Still nothing. "That is some serious internal strife you are having there, stranger," the General could not help but speak his thoughts out loud. He knew that the blond could not have been knocked out cold by injuries, external or internal. He had checked to ensure that. That meant that there was a mental battle of sorts going on within him, forcing him into this strange state of inactivity. Sephiroth briefly wondered what it could be, but then decided that it was none of his business.

He settled down beside the blond and stared at the ceiling.

"You really should wake up quickly, stranger," Sephiroth spoke out loud, finding it strangely comforting. "Because I really need to look for my moronic subordinate." He paused. "And I really need to stop calling you stranger. Or chocobo-head," he snickered at that, "...though I must say it suits you."

"It does not."

"Says the person who has two chocoboes following him around like a mother chocobo," Sephiroth laughed loudly, once. Still with a self-satisfied smile, he tilted his head to a side and glanced at the blond from the corner of his eyes. "Welcome back to the land of the living, stranger."

The blond's glazed eyes were still half-opened. He blinked, trying to open them fully, but failing. Lifting a heavy hand, he put it on his forehead, still groggy from his bout of unconsciousness.

"My name," he nevertheless mumbled, "...is Cloud Strife."

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
23.nov.2005


	6. Chapter 6

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Six  
The tragedy called history will just be repeated.

 

The blond - who had introduced himself as Cloud - raised himself into a sitting position. He scratched his messy mane listlessly, looking around the room. "Where am I?" He shook his head. Turning upwards, he caught sight of Sephiroth, and stared at him.

"Who are you?"

It was Sephiroth's turn to stare.

That question however, it seemed, was purely rhetorical. Cloud did not wait for Sephiroth's answer. He struggled onto his feet and, still holding his head, took a long, thoughtful look at the room he was in. "...Vincent? Are you there?" He called out, assuming his shadowy companion was lurking somewhere around as usual. There was no sign of any other presence in the room. "Wait..." The blond shook his head again, mumbling to himself. "...what's going on? What am I doing here? Am I even supposed to be here? What was I... ? Where's... ?" His breath hitched, and he clasped his head with both hands, pain evident in his twisted features.

Sephiroth, who had been observing him quietly from aside, deemed it appropriate to speak up now. "You do not remember anything before you went unconscious?"

"Unconscious?" Cloud repeated, still in a daze. He was not even looking in Sephiroth's direction. "I was unconscious?" He asked the space in front of him in disbelief. Before Sephiroth could enlighten him, he frowned and answered himself, "...oh yeah... I think I was. But I..." By now, he had lowered his hands to his sides. His eyes were starting to show lucidity. "...nevermind." Finally, he turned to look at Sephiroth pointedly. He tilted his head to a side. "Who are you? And where are we?" He asked again.

It all seemed very peculiar to Sephiroth, that this boy, who had called him by name just a mere day ago, could really have forgotten cleanly about his identity within the span of one day. Nevertheless, it did not seem like he was lying. And Sephiroth's name was apparently not the only thing he could not seem to remember. "You may call me Sephiroth," the General introduced, noticing that Cloud frowned harder when he heard the name, but carried on, "...and we are in a chocobo stable up north in the Icicle Area."

"Sephiroth..." Cloud echoed, fingers on his chin. "...Sephiroth... Sephiroth... Chocobo stable... Icicle Area... Sephiroth..." For a few taut seconds, he kept repeating the words to himself, until finally, he shook his head fiercely and sighed. "I think I know you." He stated. "...but I can't remember from where and when..."

"That is not important," Sephiroth dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand. "Do you remember what your purpose up north is? You mentioned a 'Vincent'. Is he your companion? Are you able to locate him by yourself?"

"Hmm," Cloud mumbled in a non-commital voice. He took one step forward, "I should be, I just need to board the next airship back to-oof," and tripped over his own feet. With a loud splat, Cloud fell face-first onto the floor beneath him.

Sephiroth beheld the scene, alternating between amusement and exasperation. "Well, first I suggest you make sure you can actually walk out of this room without falling to your death." As he said all these, Cloud clambered to his feet. "You need to rest more," Sephiroth continued. "It will do you no good to be travelling with half a mind asleep."

"I'll be fine," Cloud insisted, moving towards where his belongings had been dumped. As he took his sword and swung it around experimentally, he turned to look at Sephiroth. "What about you?" He asked. "Can you get back by yourself?" He paused. "...are you going to tell me how we ended up here in the first place at all?"

"I have already mentioned that it is not an important matter," Sephiroth shrugged. "But if you wish to know, I found you in a forest clearing. You were burying a dead chocobo, and these two," he pointed at the black and white baby chocoboes huddling together in a corner, watching the two humans converse with what seemed like fascination in their eyes, "...were with you. That was yesterday." He concluded, artfully leaving out the part where Cloud had fearfully addressed Sephiroth by name before fainting.

"And you've been taking care of me ever since?" Cloud blinked. "...thanks. I guess."

"You are welcomed," Sephiroth replied, out of courtesy rather than sincerity. "Now that you are alive and well again, I suppose I should take my leave. My friend must surely be very... worried about me," he sighed at the thought of having to deal with a frantic Zack when he met the man again. "By the way... you mentioned that you can catch... airships... from this continent... ?"

Cloud had finished strapping on his sword and materia pouch by this time. He looked over his shoulder, a strange expression on his face. "Yeah. There's a harbour just at the southern tip, near the chocobo tracks."

"..." Sephiroth had a bad premonition about this tidbit of information. "They do not happen to have an... airship... taking people back to Midgar, do they... ?"

That sentence froze Cloud completely motionless. "Midgar?" He looked suspiciously at Sephiroth. "Midgar was destroyed a few thousand years ago when..." He stopped abruptly, his blank eyes reflecting the blank his mind was drawing. "...when..." He found himself repeating. "...when..."

"...when?" Sephiroth prompted.

"...when... someone..." Cloud frowned, a hand shooting up to hold one side of his head. "...when someone summoned Meteor and obliterated the city..." He started shaking his head again. "Someone I knew..." He muttered softly, under his breath, that if Sephiroth did not have enhanced SOLDIER hearing, would have missed completely. "...I can't recall."

"..." Unsure of what response he should give, Sephiroth remained silent.

"Midgar no longer exists," the blond nevertheless held, while looking squarely at Sephiroth. "That name was lost in transit when the Century War destroyed all the books and scrolls that spoke of its existence. No one but the Seers know of that name anymore." Cloud narrowed his eyes.

"Who are you?" This time, the question demanded an answer that was more than just surface. "Where did you come from?"

\--

Vincent was reaching his limit of frustration.

For the past hour or so, while he paced up and down outside the Seer's meeting room, he had been trying to contact his PHS via a spare PHS he had borrowed from the Great Seer. Both he and Cloud shared a PHS, a decision that was made some time after they both realised that they were quite often together and had no real need to contact each other either ways. Besides, Vincent himself was not really fond of devices.

However, no matter how long he waited, nobody picked the line up. Finally, he gave up altogether. Shutting down the PHS, he stared at its empty screen for a few seconds.

It was not that he did not believe Cloud was not strong enough to survive the blast that he saw up north. The fact, however, was before him plainly. Cloud had not arrived at the Ancient Temple yet. Vincent had been waiting for a rather long time. This must mean that either he was incarcerated somewhere, or was incapable of free movement - both of which Vincent did not want to speculate about.

There was only one last thing left to do, since the Planet was not revealing anything to him. He would have to go out and look for Cloud himself.

He glanced around for a piece of paper he could write a note on, in case Cloud did walk into the Temple after he left. He could find none. Shrugging, he tore a piece of cloth from the tail end of his already tattered cape. Using a small fire spell, he burned a written message onto the cloth. Once he was done, he threw the cloth in the air. As the cloth fluttered downwards, Vincent casually withdrew his gun from its holster. With a single loud shot, he pinned the cloth onto the stone wall behind it - ready to be read by Cloud, or anyone, who walked into this part of the Temple.

Satisfied with his handiwork here, Vincent turned to walk away.

That is, until he heard the loud crash from behind him.

A blurred shadow of black and blue flashed by him, the ripples of wind it created causing Vincent's cape to flap most exaggeratedly. Vincent froze on the spot, wondering briefly what the blue-black flash could be. He soon found out. The blue-black flash - Zack, halted abruptly a few steps in front of him, with a loud, screeching sound.

"Yo!" Zack grinned at Vincent, his head turned to look over his shoulder. "Sorry to be bothering you, but I just realised I don't know my way outta this place. Care to lead the way?" His grin was now so wide, it shone with a bright light and dazzled the usually dark and brooding Vincent.

"All right, all right," Vincent quickly agreed. He did not wish to go blind. "Stop shining," he commanded.

Zack stared at him. "You're very weird. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Only every other day," Vincent sighed. Then he eyed the SOLDIER questioningly. "Wait. The Seers have business with you. What are you doing out here?"

"Oh please! Don't remind me!" Zack threw both his hands up in the air in a show of exasperation. "The only business they have with me is the business of /boring/ me! I don't understand a single thing that old man's talking about at all!" He gestured wildly. "Help us hence with the Bazookas! Lend your strength, O Ancient Warrior! Give us a hand with this infernal threat, good soldier!" His hands found his hair and they grasped tightly onto the strands, as if they were lifelines. "I'm just one step away from being driven out of my mind!!"

"My condolences," Vincent monotoned.

Zack glanced strangely at Vincent. "Thanks." He lowered his hands and put them on his waist instead. "Whatever. Now let's get outta here. This place stinks. Don't they ever clean it?"

"Get out, he says," Vincent mumbled, ignoring Zack's offhand comment about the state of disrepair the Temple was currently in, no matter how inclined to agreement he personally was. "...but where will you go to?"

"I'm going to go find Sephiroth," Zack answered immediately. There was no flinch in his tone, nor hesitation in his eyes. "I know he's here. That old Seer guy said so. I'll find him and then we'll find a way to get back to the real world together." He sighed noisily. "This is just a strange, strange dream... and when I wake up, it'll all be better. Yup! I feel better already!" The SOLDIER turned and punched his hands towards the air. "Let's go!"

There was a short pause, whereby nobody said anything. Vincent broke the silence by muttering darkly to himself, "So it really is Sephiroth..." His words bounced quietly off the enclosed corridors of the Ancient Temple, reaching Zack's ears.

"You know Sephiroth?" The SOLDIER asked, an eyebrow raised high in suspicion.

Vincent pinned him with an intense glance. "...perhaps I did," he finally said. Wordlessly, he stalked down the path to exit the Temple, sweeping by Zack without so much as acknowledging his presence.

By the time Zack realised that Vincent was not going to say a word more on the matter, the latter was already quickly disappearing into the darkness. "Hey!" Zack shouted out. He took off on his feet after Vincent. "Wait for me! Don't leave me behind with that senile old man! You have NO IDEA how bad that is for my psyche. Man, do you ever listen to people, grandpa? I swear, you've got to be some distant relative of Sephiroth! Hello~? Heey??"

Long after their footsteps had faded into the distance, Zack's incessant droning continued echoing down the enclosed walls of the building.

\--

Cloud and Sephiroth were still staring at each other in silence when the door suddenly slammed open to reveal the frantic stable boy.

"Hey!" The stable boy was saying. He held the room door open with one hand and gestured wildly outside with the other. "Come on out and take a good look at this!!" He waved, and without waiting to see if his two guests would follow him, disappeared back into the stables.

Distracted from their staredown, Cloud and Sephiroth briefly glanced one last time at each other with mutual confusion. "Might as well," Cloud shrugged. He casually made his way out of the door, followed closely by two scurrying baby chocoboes. Sephiroth closed his eyes and sighed. Cloud was right. They might as well do as told for now.

Besides, he had no idea what to say in reply to Cloud's strange queries.

As he stepped out of the warm storeroom, he was immediately hit by the chill. Fortunately for him, SOLDIER abilities meant that he was not affected by the cold or heat much - so long as they were not utterly extreme. From the looks of it, neither Cloud nor the stable boy was too concerned about the cold either. The stable boy, Sephiroth could understand. He had evidently grown up in such a climate and was accustomed to it. Cloud, however, was something else altogether. While he made his way to where Cloud and the stable boy were standing, Sephiroth racked his memory for any impression of a SOLDIER who fit Cloud's profile. There was none, which was strange. Sephiroth was sure his memory had not failed him. He could remember every SOLDIER and candidate SOLDIERs down to the last detail. And it was not like anyone could forget a hairstyle like that, anyway.

Perhaps Cloud was not from SOLDIER?

His thoughts were cut short when the stable boy pressed a button somewhere on the wall. There was a soft beeping sound, and all of a sudden, a rectangular, holographic image flickered into view from nowhere. Sephiroth tried not to act too surprised. Neither Cloud nor the stable boy looked surprised at all.

"Listen to this!" The stable boy pointed at the screen, from which moving images suddenly materialised. Someone's voice could be heard from the direction of the moving hologram, but there was too much static to make out the actual words. "It's the Bazookas!" The stable boy clamoured, evidently very excited. "A villager found 'em all, lying in a charred heap'of dirt atop some random hill or somethin'..." He pointed at the screen, and Cloud and Sephiroth looked at it obligingly.

Instead of the show that was being pictured, however, Sephiroth was more interested in the technology of the projecter. The holographic images in Shinra, the General was thinking to himself, always flickered and were dim and never less than grainy. And they could only offer static, unmoving pictures. This apparatus, situated in a chocobo stable, of all places, looked far more advanced than the ones in Hojo's laboratory. The sound aside, the picture quality was excellent. Although it was beaming the news program into thin air, there was no show of breakup in pictorial transmission at all. Sephiroth was very impressed.

And at the same time, very troubled.

This was not the Icicle Inn he was familiar with.

"Those were the guys who attacked us yesterday!" Cloud suddenly blurted out.

"...and apparently they were wiped out yesterday night... Pardon? Attacked ya?" The stable boy asked, understandably surprised at Cloud's outburst. The Bazookas were infamous for attacking entire towns, but never individuals. He frowned hard. "Fer what?"

"They attacked us when we were on our way to the Crater to..." Cloud's voice trailed. He kept silent for a few seconds more. Then he put a finger to his forehead. "...hmm? What were we on the way to the Crater for?" He mumbled to himself under his breath. After tilting his head from side to side in confusion for a long time, he seemed to give up figuring that out.

Noticing the stable boy still staring weirdly at Cloud, Sephiroth decided to come to his rescue. "Who are these people in the screen?" He asked, in the most generic and dignified manner he could.

It had absolutely no effect. The stable boy simply transferred his weird gaze from Cloud to Sephiroth.

"You ain't tellin' me ya don't know who the /Bazookas/ are, are ya?"

To be honest, or not be honest, Sephiroth sighed inwardly. "I believe I just did."

"Both of you're outta your minds!" The stable boy exclaimed.

"Is it something worth getting so worked up over?" Sephiroth countered.

"Aye, it is!" Was the comeback. "Up 'ere in the north, if ya just mention the 'Bazookas', big men'll run away screamin' fer their mothers!"

"Hmm," Sephiroth assumed a pose of mock consideration, "...kindred spirits."

"They're the enemy," Cloud spoke out in a calm, explanatory voice, his eyes locked on the screen. "A group of unabashedly bold freedom fighters banded together with the purpose of conquering every village and town on the Planet by strategy and olden magic nobody has ever seen before." He lowered his head to the floor, his eyes looking somewhat sad. "They've already successfully taken over a few island colonies... and they had announced that their latest target was to be the northern continent..."

"Not anymore!" The stable boy cried out. "Not anymore they ain't! The Seers're protecting this frozen wasteland after all! Hah hah! Those Bazookas're gettin' what they're askin' for! The Icicle is free from those vermins! Whoopie!"

With that said and done, the boy descended into a comical dance skit of sorts. The chocoboes in the stable - those that were awake, started to wark in response. The two babies that were with Cloud ran around in circles when they heard the choir of chirping by the other adult birds. Sephiroth closed his eyes. He wondered if he stabbed himself in the foot with his sword, would he wake up and find himself back in his room at the Shinra Building with a new scar through his feet, free from this rabbit hole of a dream?

"Sephiroth," the voice that addressed him dragged him back into twisted reality. Cloud waited until Sephiroth had reopened his eyes and turned to face him, before continuing, "...do you still want to go to Midgar?"

There was a heavy pause, after which Sephiroth mouthed with all seriousness, "That is the next item on my agenda."

The blond run a hand through his hair, a thoughtful pout on his lips. "I'll take you there," he finally said, much to Sephiroth's surprise. The stable boy was still hooting and dancing away in the background. "But I disclaim responsibility for whatever actions you might take after seeing it."

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes slightly. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know..." Cloud held his head gently. "I have this feeling... that the tragedy called history will just be repeated..."

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
27.nov.2005


	7. Chapter 7

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Seven  
The roads might be different, but the place we end up is the same.

 

And so the weather was fair and the sea was choppy, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping, when Sephiroth stepped onto the polished, chiselled metal flooring of the 'airship' he had been hearing Cloud blabber on and on about while they were on the way to the harbour. Out of morbid curiosity, he had kept completely silent throughout their walk there, trying to piece together a coherent picture from all the events that had transpired thus far.

He was getting a rather clear overview of the matter. The final piece of the puzzle, he knew, would click, the moment he returned to Midgar, and saw the city again.

For now, he allowed himself to be sufficiently awed by the interior of the airship. He had been in Shinra airships before, but those were cramped, dirty and downright ugly. This airship, as far as his eyes could see, put the most postmodern, luxurious cruiser ships he had ever seen to shame. After the initial metal flooring from the entrance, the corridor opened up into a wide, dazzling hall which featured lush carpeting, bright lights and high ceilings in an interesting combination of metallic hues and strong basic colours.

There were people from seemingly everywhere gathered here. Most of them had a visible weapon or two girded by their belts - warriors and travellers. Sephiroth was pleased that he did not have to do much to blend in. There were seats and tables in this huge hall, and there were vendors of all sorts lining the walls. There were areas on these same walls that glowed and swirled with strange light. Sephiroth wondered what these areas were for. There was a wide portion of the walls, however, that was made of translucent glass. It laid bare the view of the world beyond and beneath. The view it offered in the currently stationery vehicle was resplendent without arrogance, and one could only wonder what it would look like, once it took to flight - if it indeed could take to flight.

"Sephiroth!" It was Cloud's voice. The blond had moved on ahead while Sephiroth pondered, and was now standing beside one of the glowing areas in the walls. "Over here!" The two baby chocoboes standing beside Cloud warked in apparent mimicry.

Not waiting to be told twice, Sephiroth made his way over. He was rather surprised, though not uncomfortable, that he had not felt anybody stare at him in amazement or whisper words of awe to their friends throughout the whole journey to the port and subsequently into the airship. The only few curious glances he had noticed were directed towards his long sword, which he certainly did not blame them for. It was not every day you saw a man carry a sword that was taller than him like it was no heavier than a feather's load. He was also bemused that the two chocoboes had simply followed Cloud into the airship, and that nobody so much as spared the birds a second glance. Palmer would have thrown a fit if he knew that any of his precious Gelnikas were being run over by chocoboes of all variety.

Shoving his overactive thoughts aside for now, Sephiroth reached where Cloud was standing.

"The airship won't be taking off for a while," Cloud explained, "...so you can roam around if you want. Doesn't look like you've ever been on this kind of airships before."

"Indeed," Sephiroth agreed, turning around. He faced the hall, beholding it in its full splendour. "This ship looks fairly... expensive." He remarked.

Cloud snorted. "You're telling me. But it's the only ship bound for the Ruins Area this whole week, so we have no choice." He folded his arms across his chest.

"Ruins Area...?" Sephiroth tried to hide the speck of alarm that sparked within him. It was at times like these that he cursed his perspective nature.

"..." From Cloud's suddenly silent demeanour, Sephiroth could tell that the blond, too, had realised what implications his words just now had held. "...we'll arrive at the Area in a couple of hours or so, if nothing goes too critically wrong," he blankly stated, not looking at Sephiroth in the eye, staring instead at the bustling deck. In a short while, he was Rummaging through his pockets. He eventually produced a plain looking card of sorts and held it out to Sephiroth, who took it. Cloud explained, "If you want to rest, just hold that card and head down this corridor..." he pointed at the vortex of strange light in the wall, "...and look for the light that matches the card's beam. Oh, the wall there should have our names on it, so it can't be that hard to find." Absent-mindedly, Cloud put a hand to the back of his head and played with the hair there. "Questions?" He ventured, when he saw Sephiroth staring at the area of light in the wall with clear doubt in his eyes.

"Head down this corridor..." Sephiroth then reiterated Cloud's instruction, still staring at the area of light. "...?"

Cloud turned to look at what Sephiroth was looking at. Then he gave Sephiroth a long, assessing look. When he finally turned away to look at the area of light in the wall again, he surprised Sephiroth by giggling to himself. Eventually however, that escalated into a full blown laughter, loud and amused.

Sephiroth, however, was rather offended. "What are you laughing at?"

Cloud did not immediately answer. He eventually gestured towards the area of light and said with a large grin, "Come on, follow me. I'll show you." He started walking, but paused when he remembered something. Turning and bending down, he scooped up the two baby chocoboes up and summarily shoved the black one into the surprised Sephiroth's hands. "Here, you hold one. They can't come in otherwise." He turned, still grinning, and walked towards the swirling light in the wall.

And to cut a fantastic story dull, Cloud vanished into the light.

An extended silence occurred between Sephiroth and the black chocobo, as they both stared at the swirling light in the wall that Cloud had just walked through. The black chocobo came to first, warking loudly once at the silent Sephiroth. This caused Sephiroth to sigh loudly, though he did not glance downwards to acknowledge the chocobo. Tucking the chocobo under one arm, he strode purposefully towards the light in the wall as well, half expecting to hit against solid matter to make a fool of himself.

He was, instead, amazed by the smoothness in which he slid seamlessly through the bright lights into a completely new area of the airship.

Cloud and the white chocobo were already there, waiting. Sephiroth took this as a cue to release the black chocobo back onto the floor, and when he did, the black chocobo wandered slowly back to its usual spot beside Cloud. Cloud smiled, almost knowingly. "Was that fun?" He asked, with hidden glee in his tone. "As long as you hold the ticket, you'll be allowed access to certain areas of the airship via the exit points. If you don't and you try to use an exit point, you'll just walk into a wall. Cool, isn't it?"

Sephiroth could work out the theory behind the so-called exit points by now, so he wisely refrained from commenting. he turned the card in his hands around and scrutinised it in all directions. It was made of something that was like clear plastic. But when Sephiroth touched or otherwise applied pressure to its surface area, there would be soft, glowing hexagonal patterns extruding outwards from the point of touch. This was technology that he had never seen in Midgar before. "Why does it glow?"

"It's a good indication if it glows - it means it identifies you as the rightful owner," As Cloud explained, he started walking leisurely down the corridors of the new area. "You can't get into the rooms or go through an exit point otherwise. I don't know how the identification technology works myself, though, so you might want to ask someone else about that if you're interested."

Sephiroth was following Cloud in thought and action. He could see that the corridor they were walking down through had similar areas of lights spread throughout its surrounding walls, which he would for now assume led to rooms until otherwise proven. The noise of the large hall just now was like a dream away, when the serenity of the corridor sunk in. A few other people were walking to and fro in this area, minding their own businesses. There was a well dressed lady, whom, when Cloud and Sephiroth walked past, however, gasped and turned slightly red under her cheeks. Cloud continued walking as if he had noticed nothing, but Sephiroth stopped abruptly. It was hard not to, for the girl had literally ran after him, straight into his path, and stood in his way, a serious look on her face.

For a good few seconds, it was just Sephiroth and the flustered, trembling girl, squaring off. Finally, the girl clasped her hands tightly together and stuttered in a very small voice, "E-E-E...Excuse me, but do... do you... do you..." she trailed off, her eyes affixed on the ground. Somewhat amused by her spirit, Sephiroth found himself looking in the direction she was looking as well. There on the floor, in the space between them, laid what looked like a lady's handkerchief. Sephiroth alternated his troubled glances between the handkerchief and the lady. If she would just bend down slightly, she could reach her fallen article. Surely she was not waiting for Sephiroth to pick it up for her?

When the silence stretched for what seemed like the longest time, Sephiroth shook his head slightly. Well, the great General thought to himself, it was just a piece of cloth. He could pick it up.

Even as that thought crossed his mind and his body moved to comply, the familiar figure of Cloud suddenly stepped in front of him, blocking him from carrying out what he had purposed to. The blond glanced at Sephiroth over his shoulder and shook his head. Not giving an explanation to his actions, Cloud turned to the girl and smiled gently. "I'm sorry, we're in a rush. Maybe next time." He nodded his head slightly and commenced shoving Sephiroth down the corridor. They did not stop moving until they reached a particular light spot, which Cloud then promptly pushed Sephiroth through. He walked through it himself a second later and sighed. They were now in a cabin, with two beds and a table, and a window peering out into the distance. Looking up at the still confused Sephiroth, Cloud asked, "You didn't mean to do that just now, did you?"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes in confusion. "It was just a handkerchief."

This caused Cloud to stare at him with wide, surprised eyes. "...right." He eventually said. "You do know that if you had picked that handkerchief up just now, and handed it back to the girl, it would be tantamount to agreeing to go out on a date with her?"

This time, Sephiroth stared at Cloud with wide, surprised eyes.

"You didn't." Cloud answered for him. He put a hand to his forehead. After a while, his pursed lips curved upwards into a smile. And then, he chuckled. That soon developed into full blown laughter, which Cloud tried desperately to suppress, but failed. Eventually, Cloud simmered down. Sephiroth had regained his composure as well, and had seated himself regally on one of the beds, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed.

Noticing that Cloud was no longer laughing his lungs out, Sephiroth opened his eyes and shot him an annoyed glare. "Had enough?"

Cloud giggled at the question, but that soon went away. He coughed into his fist. "Well, you can't blame me. It's an international standard that if you return a lady's fallen handkerchief to her, you're agreeing to going out with her."

"There is no such standard," Sephiroth denied, still cross.

Again, Cloud had to stifle a giggle. "If you say so," he grinned. "Well, since you didn't know the symbolic meaning behind what you were about to do, I suppose I actually saved your life by interfering at the right time?"

Sephiroth contemplated it. "Yes," he agreed. Then mechanically stated, "Thank you."

Cloud simply smiled in return.

"I certainly hope that there are no more of these strange 'customs' that are being practiced around here," Sephiroth shook his head and resumed the conversation. "It would be great causes of inconvenience."

Cloud seemed to consider that statement carefully, while leaning against the table wedged in between the two beds. "Right," he said. "There are /some/ things that you should keep a lookout for, in case you aren't already aware."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "And those would be...?"

"Hmm... since we're on the subject of courtship... things like..." Cloud's eyes darted around the room furtively, as he tried to find the right words. "...like never, ever throw a round, shiny thing at someone you don't know or are otherwise not fond of."

"..." Sephiroth had his suspicions. "...why?"

"It's a modern way of saying 'I really like you'."

"..."

"..."

"Very modern," Sephiroth concurred, a complicated expression decorating his countenance.

Cloud sighed. "If you didn't know /that/ either, I think there are quite a lot of other things you'd probably appreciate knowing."

Sephiroth lowered his glance to the floor for a while, before looking up.

"We have until Midgar."

\--

"Do not slurp when eating or drinking."

"Hey, what about noodles..."

"It indicates that you shall be giving everybody on the same table a treat."

"...oh."

"Do not knock on doors."

"Why the heck not??!"

"It means someone has just died and you are inviting the person inside to the funeral."

"...woah."

"Do not slap anybody on the left cheek."

"The heck'll I wanna do that for..."

"It means you are proposing to marry the person."

"...bloody hell."

"Do not..."

"How long are you going to keep reciting these things to me?!"

"...until you remember them, and stop giving me trouble by accidentally doing something you were not supposed to."

"..."

"..."

"...how many more are there to go?"

"I will stop once we reach our destination."

"Thank goodness. Where're we going anyway?"

"..."

"..."

"...The roads might be different, but the place we end up is the same."

"...hah?"

"Midgar. The city where it ended and began."

\--

After scaling a steep cliff face, Cloud, Sephiroth and the two stalker chocoboes set their foot down on the flat surface of the cliff top. Chipped with age and natural abuse, the cliff was firm and rough. Cloud turned to look at Sephiroth. The afternoon sun gave off a comfortable warmth. Pointing into the distance, Cloud announced, "Here we are. Midgar."

Sephiroth looked in the direction where Cloud was pointing.

There was nothing there, except a large surface of glittering water.

The flapping wings of a group of seagulls echoed somewhere overhead.

"Midgar..." Sephiroth mumbled breathlessly, as if repeating the city's name would convince him that this was indeed, where the mighty city once stood.

"As you can probably see for youself," Cloud interjected, his hand ruffling the back of his hair, "...Midgar City doesn't exist anymore."

"What happened to it?"

"Hmm... big rock from the sky destroyed it, people went away, war happened, the Planet shifted its territory plates, the ocean came in, and... here is the final results of all of that after a few thousand years had come and gone," Cloud nodded, satisfied with his summary of events.

Sephiroth was still staring at the ocean. "How do I know if you're not lying?"

A chortle. "What would I stand to gain out of it?"

Silence.

"...I no longer am in the world that I once knew, am I?"

It was a question that did not require an answer. "Obviously," Cloud, however, found it appropriate to reply, "...considering you don't even know the most basic of social etiquette nowadays."

Sephiroth turned to look at Cloud, his eyes clouded with an unreadable emotion. "Cloud," he stated, and the blond looked expectantly at him, "...there is something I would like to ask you about." As Cloud waited, however, the question never came. Sephiroth's view gradually shifted into a spot somewhere behind him. "...but I am afraid we will need to rid ourselves of the distractions first, before a proper conversation can take place."

Turning to look over his shoulder, Cloud saw what Sephiroth was seeing.

Surrounding them left to right was a large platoon of resistance soldiers. And if looks could kill, neither Cloud nor Sephiroth would have been able to withstand the sheer malice the resistance group men were throwing in their direction. The two baby chocoboes flanking Cloud immediately primed themselves into an attacking position and warked angrily.

"We've finally found you!!" The leader, a man with a long sword in one hand and a shield in the other, pointed his sword at the duo. "You'll pay for what you did, lunatic!"

"...what?" Cloud found his voice, after being dumbfounded for a while. "What did I do?"

The leader raised his sword in the air. "Your friend over there wiped out an entire faction of Bazookas up north!!" He screeched, his face red with fury and determination. "And you... you have the black and white materia, don't you?!" He turned to Cloud. "The Seers gave it to you! Now hand it over, and maybe we won't mutilate your carcass /too/ badly..." The sneer that proceeded out of the man's mouth was insincere and mocking.

"Man, everytime I see you Bazookas you're either screaming away or threatening to attack people senseless. You guys should really work on your PR," Cloud shook his head, his hands on his waist. "It'll help you with member longevity in the long run too, I think."

Already, the members of the resistance group were rearranging themselves into a formation, fanning themselves out consistently to surround Cloud and Sephiroth in a large semi-arc.

"We're not here to hear you jeer at us!" The leader pointed his long sword, this time specifically at Sephiroth. "You'll pay for what you did to our people last night, murderer!"

Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow in amusement. "Would it be impolite of me to start denying that I had no relation to whatever happened between you and your friends last night now?"

"Shut up!" The man bellowed. "I could recognise you even if you turned into ash, monster! Your stature... aura... outlook! Do you think I'm a fool?!"

"Hey, hey, simmer," Cloud held both hands up in an attempt to calm the situation down. He had been assessing the situation and did not think it would be beneficial for Sephiroth to fan the man's flame of fury even further than what was already burning. The Bazookas had them surrounded, and most of them were equipped with... horrors of all horrors - materia. This was not a battle they could get out of easily once they got into. "Perhaps we should talk this through like civilized people, instead of throwing groundless accusations to and fro. It's true we were up north last night, but I'm not sure if Sephiroth could have gone out in the cold and dark, find the secret hideout of a resistance group and wipe them out in all of one night, no matter how big and strong he may look."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence," Sephiroth remarked dryly. Cloud grinned. The General closed his eyes and sighed. "If you wish to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, good gentlemen, I'll have you know that I was asleep in the Icicle Inn traveller's lodge's chocobo stable all of last night. You may verify that fact with the stable boy if you so please. However I will have you know that I had not seen a single one of your people last night, much less slaughter them." His eyes opened, the green glow in them glowing intensely. "Have I made myself clear?"

This seemed to shake the conviction of the Bazooka leader for a while. "Im...Impossible!" He weakly cried out. "I...I don't care what you say," the grip on his sword tightened. "I only believe what I saw! Men!" He yelled, and the soldiers behind him roared in unison. "Attack!"

Cloud groaned and stepped backwards. Then he realised that should he step any further back he would be plunging directly into the ocean beneath. He looked to Sephiroth, surprised at how natural it seemed to be asking the taller man for his opinion. "Well? What should we do now? We're surrounded. And they have materia."

"Hmm..." Sephiroth was already evaluating the situation. "Formation D. Interesting. So there are people besides the Shinra army who are aware of this war formation."

"Huh?" Cloud did not fully understand.

"In any case, there is only one way to thwart Formation D with just two men, so I shall be needing your help," Sephiroth said, while deflecting the first spell that came in their way with a casual swipe of his sword.

"All right... just don't ask me to jump into the ocean," Cloud decided. He drew his broadsword and stood in a ready position.

"Well, that is an option too, but we will not consider it for now," Sephiroth sounded amused. "How far is the reach of your Quake spell?"

"...very."

"Excellent. Now I need you to prepare a spell combination in this order precisely - Quake, Aero and Blizzaga." More attacks were coming in, and the men were starting to close into the cramped space where Cloud and Sephiroth were standing in. Cloud found himself marveling at how Sephiroth was unheedful, his voice calm and his countenance unfailing. He deflected every spell and every weapon strike as if they were nothing. Cloud thought his actions clumsy compared to the grace of the man beside him. Sephiroth continued, "Quake - make sure it reaches the entire surface area of this cliff top. Aero - cast the spell on me. Blizzaga, do it immediately after the Aero spell ceases." The man switched from a defensive pose into an offensive one. "Now!"

Cloud had no time for questions. He conjured the spells quickly into his hands immediately and summoned the first elemental attack - Quake. To better control it, he went down on one knee and touched the earth he was to use. He noticed the two baby chocoboes running around and flapping their wings frantically, but he knew the spell would not touch them, so he let the warking of the bird go to the back of his mind. Spreading the spell over the entire cliff top meant that its intensity was reduced, but it achieved its purpose all the same. None of the people from the faction group could stand still after a while. They either fell to the ground or were unable to attack anymore.

The spell ended as soon as Cloud's hand left the earth, but the enemies were disorientated enough. It was time for the second spell to go. Cloud saw a blur of black run forward and leap high into the air, and once he confirmed that to be his target, unleashed the Aero spell. A strong gust of wind curled up from seemingly nowhere and flew with force towards the still airborne Sephiroth. As he recovered from the spell respite, he saw the Aero hit Sephiroth, but did not harm him due to the Wall Sephiroth had cast around himself. Instead, the spell propelled Sephiroth further forward, until he landed on the other side of the thick layer of enemy troops.

It was only at this point of time that Cloud understood what Sephiroth had been wanting to achieve with the trio spells. He smiled slightly to himself, impressed. Not wasting a moment, he fired the final spell he had up his arsenal. Blizzaga. The temperature dipped suddenly. Without warning, the air around the Bazooka troops transformed into sharp spikes of lethal ice. It took aim, and was about to skewer the troops when from the opposite direction came a similar wave of ice and freezing temperature.

It was Sephiroth, and he had cast a Blizzaga from the other side as well. The two Blizzaga spells met in the middle, where the confused Bazooka troops stood, and crashed headlog. They cancelled each other's intensity out, but were still strong enough to build a tower of ice over the troops, enclosing them in a frozen prison.

All this happened so quickly, the Bazookas were left with little choice but to marvel with shock and unwilling respect at the executioners.

"Wow," was Cloud's first word after the dust and mist had cleared. He walked - chocoboes in tow, towards where Sephiroth was examining his sword for any dents, and shook his head in disbelief. "I would never have guessed those three spells were for that purpose."

Sephiroth did not answer immediately, merely finishing his routine check of the sword and then sheathing it. He then glanced at Cloud. "You had no need to. Well done, in any case." His glance then transferred to the troops trapped within two ice walls. "That should solve our problem for now."

Cloud was silent for a bit. "...it would have been much easier for you to just kill them, wouldn't it?" He eventually asked, his voice small but serious.

"It would have achieved nothing," was Sephiroth's reply. He walked up towards the ice wall and said in a loud voice, "Listen well! I said I had no knowledge of ever broaching your territory, and I meant it. This time, I will let your accusations slip by with a soft punishment. Should you attempt to slander me again, however, be prepared to face the consequences."

None of the people of the troops dared to say anything in return.

Taking silence to be consent, Sephiroth turned and started walking away.

Then Cloud went up to the ice wall as well. He examined it methodologically. "Don't worry," he then said, with a shrug of indifference, "the way the sun is now, these walls should melt by evening. Just bear with it until then!" He turned to go away as well, waving. "May we never meet again!"

The Bazookas were thus left to be enveloped with verbal silence, splashing ocean waves and the sound of melting ice.

"Are the two of them on the side of the Seers, boss?" A timid voice broke the silence, asking the question that everybody else feared to ask.

Their leader looked out of the semi-translucent walls of ice, in the direction that Cloud and Sephiroth had disappeared into.

"We're in big trouble, guys. Big, big trouble."

\--

And it was to this scene that Vincent and Zack arrived, later that afternoon, when the ice had melted by half and was still continuing to melt.

"Cripes," Zack's eyes were as big as saucers. "The General's been here," he asserted, no doubt in his voice at all, when he saw the towers of ice enclosed around the Bazookas.

Vincent was not as optimistic. "And you can tell from?"

"The ice, grandpa, the ice!" Zack pointed dramatically. They both made their way over to where the ice wall was, and knocked on it to get the attention of the people inside. "Hey, you in there!" Zack shouted, and that caused him to be the sudden focus of attention by everyone within. "Sephiroth was here, wasn't he? You know, big tall guy in black, silver hair, long-ass sword, face like he'd just swallowed ten sour plums?"

"You're related to him?" Some random man from inside narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Sort of," Zack scratched his head, wondering how his relationship to Sephiroth could be properly described. That thought soon flew out of his head. "But anyway, hey! He /did/ come by here, didn't he? I can recognise his anti-Formation D handiwork anywhere!" He laughed.

Nobody attempted to answer Zack. They shifted uncomfortably in their prison of ice and looked at each other meaningfully.

"Was there someone else with him?" Vincent, who had remained in the background until now, asked quietly.

When attention was shifted to him, some of the men immediately gasped. "It's you!" One eventually said. "You were with that chocobo head up north! You guys are on the Seers' side too!" The man snarled angrily.

Vincent remained passive to the taunts. "So Cloud was with Sephiroth," he concluded. "Thank you. That is all I needed to know." After bowing slightly, he turned and with a sweep of his cape, started down the path that would take him away from the clifftop.

"Hey, wait up!" Zack called out, when he saw that Vincent fully intended to leave without caring if the SOLDIER was following him. Running after the man, Zack eventually caught up without much difficulty. "Would it kill you to tell me we're going off?"

Vincent glanced once at Zack, then glanced away.

"Aren't we going to help them?" Zack then asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of the people still trapped in the ice.

"They will be fine, once the ice melts by the evening," Vincent shrugged. He was still walking.

"Man, you're pretty icy yourself, mister."

And walking.

"And you're deaf, too."

And walking.

"...I want ice-cream."

And walking.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
1.dec.2005


	8. Chapter 8

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Eight  
I only want your happiness, knowing I can never be yours to share it.

 

As it was getting dark, Vincent and Zack found a cave somewhere at the foot of the cliff they had just came down from, and decided to camp there. The sky was clear enough to camp on a random forest clearing outside, Zack pointed out, but Vincent would rather be safe than sorry. After checking out the cave from entrance to dead-end, the duo settled down. With a fistful of soil and a strange fire spell, Vincent kept the cavern lit and warm. He then cast a dark spell on the entrance of the cave, meaning to camouflague their presence there from predators, monsters, and rebel forces.

By the time he was done, Zack whistled with appreciation. "The world's gotten more technologically advanced, I can tell, but the materia's gotten advanced too, haven't they?"

Vincent silently retreated back to his spot near the fire. "We don't usually use fire to light up a cave for night camping," he said, when he had settled down, "...but Cloud has the camping tools. Until we find him, we will stick with the old fashioned way of doing things."

"That Cloud guy you keep talking about..." Zack began, his voice trailing off. "..." He remained silent for a bit. Then he shook his head and laughed almost derisively to himself. "...nevermind. It can't be."

"Cloud Strife," Vincent spoke out loud. As if seeing the shocked expression on Zack's face was not enough, Vincent continued, with an emphasis in his voice, "...his name, is Cloud Strife."

Still sporting the look of absolute shell-shock on his face, Zack surprised even himself by managing to mouth out, "...the little guy with a chocobo head who came from Nibelheim...?"

"Hmm..." Vincent then said, with a knowing smile on his face. "...so you do know him. But he is not quite that little anymore, really."

Unsure what Vincent's words had meant, Zack simply shook his head. He gestured widely with his hands. "What's going on?" The question was out of his mouth before he realised it. "Don't tell me even /Cloud/ has been pulled into this strange future-past mumbo-jumbo that old guy was ranting on and on about?!"

Vincent shrugged. "Why don't you ask him when we meet up with him?"

This calmed Zack down slightly. He lowered his hands and leant back. "You're so sure we're going to be meeting up with him eventually." It was a statement with a hidden question: Elaborate, if you please.

"Well, there is no basis for doubt," Vincent did not wait for a long pause to occur before answering the question. "So long as we both make it a point to find each other, we eventually will."

The information took a while to sink in. "Don't know where you got that optimism from, but whatever," Zack eventually shrugged. He stretched, lifting his hands high up above him. "I'll believe that it's Cloud Strife only when I see it. Until then, I believe in the benefits of a good night's rest. Good night, grandpa! Don't spend too much time brooding or you'll get nightmares!"

"Hmm," Vincent mumbled to himself under his breath, "now that is something I seldom have to worry about not getting."

On the other side of the fire, Zack was already snoring like a hedgehog.

\--

Meanwhile, seated calmly upon a large slab of stone overlooking the pool of water that used to be Midgar, was Sephiroth. The stone was situated on a cliff outlook, and there was a cave carved into the side of the cave. The outlook served as an awkward ledge. It was hardly visible, but there was ample space to walk around a bit on it.

Cloud was somewhere in the cave beside the stone, Sephiroth knew. Over the course of the past hour or so, the boy had been moving in and out of the cave in seeming fluster. The white baby chocobo followed Cloud around enthusiastically. The black one, however, had somehow fallen asleep at Sephiroth's feet. Nevertheless, Cloud was stealthy and painfully inconspicuous. For that, Sephiroth was grateful. He had much to think about that night.

Cloud's busy shuttling came to an end when he slowly got near to Sephiroth, and stayed there. He waited for Sephiroth to acknowledge his presence with a questioning quirk of a brow, before asking, "Well, shall we?"

This was not a question Sephiroth had expected to hear.

So Cloud continued, "You want to go back to Midgar, don't you?"

"..." Sephiroth nodded, although he also frowned. "...but Midgar is..."

Cloud's response to his trailing question was to shake his head slightly. "Without a doubt, Midgar has been destroyed and flooded over," he asserted. "...but that doesn't mean it isn't there anymore."

Already, Sephiroth had gotten off the stone and onto his two feet. He looked at Cloud, then at the vast pool of water that stretched out into the night horizon. "I do not really have any lost love for that city," Sephiroth remarked with a poker face, "...but I am indeed curious about what it looks like now."

"We'll find that out in a while," Cloud shrugged. He then gestured towards the cave. "Come on. I've already set everything up."

The duo entered the cave, chocoboes in trail. Immediately, Sephiroth noticed that there was a dim glow from somewhere deep in the cavern. As they moved closer in, he saw that a group of glowing materia were the source of that dim light. The materia were spaced out equally, one from the other, in a full circle. Upon closer examination, however, Sephiroth saw that the materia circle was actually one orb short of being full. And it was through the place of the missing orb that Cloud now walked through. So did the chocoboes.

Sephiroth followed, and could feel himself stepping through a thin energy shield which the materia formation must have been the cause of. He marvelled at the usage of the orbs. He knew that each natural materia had a small area of magical protection, so that, in case a spell backfired, at least the caster had slight protection. He had not known that these small areas of magical protection could converge to form a large shield, though. There was research going on in Midgar that tested this possibility, but those plans were only in its infancy where he lived. It seemed to him, though, that the technology had matured into something else altogether in this world.

"It's called an Exit Glyph," Cloud volunteered, seemingly able to sense Sephiroth's curiosity and amazement. "We can use it to travel back and forth between other Exit Glyphs, or use it to teleport short distances."

"How very... convenient," Sephiroth remarked, for lack of a better word to describe the process. "It would seem to me that airships are no longer necessary, if everybody holds the power to teleport."

"Not really," Cloud countered. "...considering you need quite a number of high level Exit materia to form a successful Glyph. That aside, you can't just walk into a Glyph and expect it to take you to places. You still need to know how to control the forces within."

Sephiroth crossed his arms over his chest. "It isn't that hard to get an Exit materia up a high level. And with a little bit of training, controlling an Exit materia is no great obstacle."

At that, Cloud half snorted. He had been digging around in his pouch for something and had finally found it - a materia orb. "Only a handful of people actually know what a materia is nowadays," Cloud said, as he got down on one knee to place the materia on the formation, completing the circle, "...it might be hard to find someone who can even control /one/ Exit materia, much less ten or more."

Before Sephiroth could question Cloud further, the materia surrounding them suddenly glowed an intense white. The light soon surrounded the duo, spreading outwards until it touched the shield. Sephiroth had to blink momentarily at the sudden glare of light. And when he next opened his eyes, the white had gone. It had been replaced by a sombre, navy blue, surrounding him and Cloud from all directions.

It did not take him long to realise that they were now in the depths of the ocean - saved from being crushed by the weight of the water only because of the magical bubble that kept them enclosed in safety.

"You teleported us into the ocean," Sephiroth turned to Cloud, and stated solemnly.

"I did," Cloud stated, equally solemnly.

"Were we not supposed to go to Midgar?"

"We are."

"..."

"...?"

"... ..."

"...we don't make good talking partners, do we?"

"..."

"Anyway," Cloud pointed somewhere, and the bubble suddenly started drifting in the direction of his point. "Midgar is just up in front." He turned to look at Sephiroth over his shoulder, keeping his finger pointed so that the bubble continued moving. "Don't be too surprised at what you're going to see."

Sephiroth did not have to wait long to find out what Cloud had meant. As the bubble continued moving, a large, looming outline came into sight. Dark though the ocean was, the large thing was even darker. The two chocoboes that were with them warked and flapped their wings, seemingly aggravated over something. As for Sephiroth, his entire attention was captured by the silouette in the background. It had a magical pull to it that denied him from looking anywhere else, no matter how much he wanted to.

It was Midgar all right.

The same Midgar it was a few thousand years ago.

In but a short while, Cloud and Sephiroth were floating above the ruined city of Midgar. Sephiroth could tell that they were deep, deep in the bottom of the ocean, for no matter how hard he looked upwards, he could not perceive the water's surface. It was strange, but he felt no panic. Something about Cloud's calm composure simply denied that feeling from him, nevermind the situation demanded it.

After floating about aimlessly above the ruins of the massive city for what seemed like a long while, Sephiroth found his voice. "I like Midgar like this," he chuckled, without any real ominous meaning to his words, "...I think it should stay this way."

Cloud did turn around to glance at him strangely. "Isn't Midgar your hometown?"

Sephiroth did not answer, his eyes concentrating on a spot near the ruined city. "Are you able to bring us closer?" He asked.

"Yes..." Cloud returned his attention to piloting the bubble. Perhaps it was the lull of the darkness. Or perhaps it was the presence of the great city. Either ways, Cloud was feeling too nostalgic to say no. He laughed softly to himself. "It's not like there's anybody here to see us trespassing, huh?"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Sephiroth's voice sounded serious. "They," he pointed, "...definitely look like people to me."

"What..." Cloud's incredulous words died upon his lips when he turned to look at where Sephiroth was pointing. Then a grim colour overtook his face. His eyes narrowed. He immediately jetted the bubble away, into the shadows of the tall, ruined tower of the ex-Shinra building.

Far into the distance, they could observe a group of divers slowly making their way towards a lighted area in the ancient ruins.

"Not exactly tourists, are they?" Sephiroth raised a brow in query.

"Nobody should know that Midgar still exists beneath the ocean," Cloud shook his head. "Tourists aside, I hardly ever see /fish/ swimming around this area."

"You...?" Sephiroth added one more entry to his growing list of Questions To Ask Cloud Strife At Opportune Time. If Cloud noticed Sephiroth's hesitation, he did not show it.

"Midgar..." Cloud did, however, seek to explain his first question about the tourists. "...is a Lost City. It exists, in people's minds, only in myths. Current technology is unable to probe through the natural shield that the Planet has put up around the city to prevent its discovery. Why..." He left his last word trailing. "...unless the Planet..."

"Cloud," Sephiroth's voice stopped him. He blinked, his attention returning to the present. "We're losing sight of them," the General pointed out. "Are we following?"

"Umm..." Cloud took a moment to recompose his thoughts. "Yeah, I guess..." He slowly piloted the bubble from one shadowy area to another, until they were directly behind the divers at a close enough distance. The bright area of light the divers were going into was something like a tunnel with a plain bubble-like surface blocking the water from entering it. It did, however, allow the divers to go through unharmed. Once the divers were on the other side of the air bubble, gravity set in, and they were on their feet walking, instead of swimming. Cloud and Sephiroth turned to look at each other questioningly.

It seemed, however, that the divers were getting further and further away as the duo hesitated. Finally, Cloud shook his head and drove the bubble they were in forward, just as the divers disappeared around a turn in the bend. They were soon through the air bubble as well. As soon as the protection bubble touched air, it disappeared with a small popping sound. Cloud and Sephiroth landed on their feet on dry ground, along with the two chocoboes, who were amazingly quiet.

Taking a moment to examine the surroundings, Sephiroth soon commented, "Interesting structure."

Cloud frowned. "I've never noticed this place before..."

Suddenly, the lights flickered and went out. The brightly lit corridor they were in was shrouded in unpenetrable darkness. The chocoboes warbled softly in surprise, and scampered about, although they never wandered too far away from the two men.

"That explains why you had never seen it before," Sephiroth pointed out. "It seems like the lights only come on when the people inside of this thing are expecting... guests."

"I figured," Cloud shrugged. While he was still debating if they should follow the divers to their destination, Sephiroth swept past him, silent and graceful as a cat in the night. Cloud gasped softly. "Wait! I don't think we should..."

Sephiroth turned around, smirked once at him, and disappeared around the bend they saw the divers going into just now.

Cloud cursed under his breath. Then he ran as quickly as he could to catch up with Sephiroth before he lost him.

The chocoboes followed.

\--

They had been navigating past a complex series of forks and crossroads, never once letting up on the scent of the divers they were following. They kept conspicuously out of sight; making sure that they were always two turns behind the divers and very quiet in their steps. Sometime in between navigating a fork and going around a bend, Cloud had picked up the two chocoboes and tucked one under each arm. Sephiroth led the espionage - Cloud toddled along. He was suddenly painfully aware that sneaking around in silence was one of his more lacking traits.

After all, that was what Vincent was for, right?

When Sephiroth suddenly held a hand out to stop him from progressing, Cloud knew that they had reached their destination. Following the General's cue, the two of them found a pile of jutting debris that would keep them effectively hidden from view and yet close enough for eavesdropping.

Said divers were standing in front of a door, examining a panel to the side.

Cloud and Sephiroth could hear the divers conversing quietly with each other. Both of them strained their ears to find out more. Beyond their natural curiosity, both were well aware of how useful even the most seemingly minute details of the enemy could be.

"I can't believe you forgot the code!"

"Excuse me for not having photographic memory!"

"Hey, hey! Now's not the time for that..."

"You shut up and help us out here!"

"I don't think..."

"What if we..."

"This is not good..."

Their voices soon descended into a swirl of confused murmurs. After a while more of discussion, one of the divers threw his hands up in the air and grunted.

"Oh forget it! Let's just use the backup password!"

After saying which, he pushed a few buttons on the panel. And then they waited.

Soon, there was a cackling sound, like that of a radio transmitter receiving a bad signal. Immediately, the diver who had pressed the buttons just now slammed both his hands on the walls beside the panel. "Backup Pass Initiation! Door serial number..." he glanced at a spot on the door, then continued, "ZH3289L."

The cackling sound dulled to a dim buzz. A voice suddenly broadcasted itself over the channel. "Backup Pass Initiation accepted. Reciting backup pass for Door ZH3289. 'I only want your happiness...'"

The diver almost sighed in relief. "...'knowing I can never be yours to share it.'" He enunciated the words as clearly as he could.

There was a pause, before the voice continued, "Code verification complete. Now get in here, you bozos. I can't believe you forgot the password AGAIN!"

The door that the divers had been staring at all this while finally slid open to reveal total darkness. What lay beyond the darkness, was anybody's guess. After the last diver strode in, the door slid ominously shut again.

Behind their hiding place, Cloud and Sephiroth exchanged a knowing glance.

"We can't use that method right now," Cloud quickly said, suspecting that Sephiroth was still feeling rash. "They'll suspect that something's wrong and we'll be flayed alive. Who knows how many other people they have in there? It could be an entire army!"

In response, Sephiroth snickered to himself. "And you deemed it necessary to bring that to my attention, as if I have yet to think of that myself, because...?"

The blond's face twisted in disbelief. "Because you were impulsive enough to follow those divers without considering the possible consequences! What if they caught us before we found them out? What if we get lost? What if the only way out was to exit that tunnel before we strayed away too long from it?"

This time, Sephiroth laughed out loud.

"What's so funny??!"

The General opened an amused eye to glance at Cloud sidelong. "You do raise some reasonable issues. But the answers to your questions should be obvious enough. We will just have to be better than our expectations. Nothing short of a miracle will be able to stop us that way."

Cloud tried very hard not to gape.

"In any case, you are right to say that we should not bother to try that trick so soon after someone has just done it," Sephiroth rose to full height and began retracing his steps, presumably back to where they had entered from. "Come along, Cloud." He turned around slightly to smirk, again, at the mercenary. "It will certainly not do for me to go on ahead of you. After all, what if you get lost?"

Cloud was not sure which noise came first after that - his cry of indignation or Sephiroth's snort of undisguised amusement.

If they had taken care to examine the door further, Cloud would have realised that this was the continental hideout of the Bazookas that had eluded the Seers since time indefinite.

\--

The moment the Bazooka divers entered their hideout proper, a lanky man decked with a lab coat bore down on them. "For once in your life," he said, "try to remember the password to the hideout, okay?"

"Relax, leader," one of the divers shrugged. "It's not like anybody's going to find this place anyway!"

The leader glowered, about to dispute the truth of that sentence. He shook his head eventually, deciding that it was simply not worth it. With a tilt of his head, he beckoned the divers further into the room. As they walked, he asked, "Well? What have you got to report? Did you find the man in black who destroyed the Icicle Area hideout?"

"Yeah, we did," was the answer, oddly flat.

"And?" The leader prompted, feeling ridiculous that he had to.

"And nothing. We couldn't get him. There was another guy with him, helping him with large spells and large swords and stuff. Couldn't even get near enough to nick him with a Fire spell," the narrator snorted.

Somewhere in the midst of the rant, however, the leader of the group paled considerably. "There was another guy with him. Who could cast strong spells and had a large sword?"

The divers nodded their assent in unison.

By this time, they had reached what had to be the deepest portion of the hideout. There were huge holographic screens depicting several areas of the Ruins Area at once, so that any movement by any calvary the Seers sent after them could be monitored and countered with ease. There were several people tapping at panels in front of the screens, keeping an eye on things. The leader ignored them all in favour of storming towards a little desk hidden strategically behind some unwanted crates in the corner of the room. He ransacked the desk thoroughly, whilst the divers watched on in confusion. Finally, he produced a piece of paper, torn at the edges and charred with age.

Brandishing it to their faces, he demanded, "Was it him? Was it Cloud Strife?!"

Surprised, the divers stared at the piece of paper. "Wow!" One exclaimed. "Where'd you get one of these? It's called... umm... photographs and they're really, really old!"

"Answer my question, private..." the man in the lab coat growled menacingly. The diver quickly snapped his awed mouth shut. He then opened it again, probably to reply properly this time, but was cut off when one of his comrades gasped sharply.

"It's him!" The man grabbed the arm of the person beside him. "That's the guy who fought us along with that man!"

"By golly, I think you may be right about that..."

"But what's he doing in an ancient picture?"

"Are you sure that's not just one of his ancestors..."

"The man in this photograph," the leader interjected, causing all speculation to cease, "...is Cloud Strife." There were gasps from all around. "Before you ask, yes - he is The Cloud Strife. He was the leader of the AVALANCHE who saved the Planet during the Crisis." The hand holding the picture started to wobble. "Are you positive that this was the man you saw?"

The divers exchanged brief looks with one another. Then one spoke out, "Very."

Their leader's hunched shoulders started to tremble. His followers quickly took one step back, to avoid the impending outburst.

Instead of a roar of rage, however, what came next was a series of demented snickers.

"Well, my good friends," the man lifted his head up and summarily sneered at his audience. "I think it's safe to say that we must have found the key to the secret of immortality which we've been trying all our life to research..."

Saying which, his snickers became large hoots of triumphant laughter, which echoed off the walls of the large, mainly empty room, holding promises of a dire, diabolical plan to come.

\--

That night, the Bazookas hideout beneath the ocean of the Ruins Area caved in, with no survivors. The very last image the other hideouts received of the doomed site, was an eerie movie of a ominous, dark-clad man grinning maniacally at the security cameras onsite.

\--

"Morning," Cloud greeted quietly, when he walked out of the cave the next morning to find Sephiroth perched atop the same rock he had been the previous day, staring out at the ocean. The two baby chocoboes were sitting somewhere at the base of the rock, after having puffed up their feathers into round balls to keep warm.

The General acknowledged him with quirk of his brow.

"So, are we going back to investigate that strange place in the midst of the Midgar ruins before or after breakfast?" Cloud joked. He knew that Sephiroth would say yes. It had occurred to him that the man was very hung up on anything to do with Midgar.

It was to his surprise, therefore, that Sephiroth shook his head. "I think that there is no further point in that. I wished to see Midgar at the outset, and I have seen it. There is nothing more to do there."

"Aren't you curious about those people from yesterday?" Cloud asked, also with a pout. "Because I am."

Sephiroth eyed him with an unreadable look on his face. "Will those people be able to help me return to my world? Will they be able to help you fill in the blanks in your mind?"

Cloud kept quiet, and had to admit that Sephiroth had a point.

"As for me," Sephiroth hopped off the rock, waking the two chocoboes up with a start. "...until I find a way back, I had best get used to this world, find my friend, and figure out why was it I was placed in this position in the first place." He glanced at Cloud from the corner of his eyes. "Well? Will you help me?"

Cloud was momentarily surprised at the request, finding this man more and more familiar as they spent time together. Then he gave a lopsided smile. "Sure," and said. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
23.mar.2006


	9. Chapter 9

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Nine  
Those words were larger than any sin, and sweeter than any punishment.

 

Cloud and Sephiroth stood at a crossroads.

They were staring at a signboard, the only indication that it was indeed a signboard being the tattered label that declared it as such. Due to the terrain - the signboard stood brave and tall in the middle of a semi-desert - hard, dry sand had crusted over much of its surface area. The words on the various signs were so faded, they were barely legible at all.

"Umm," Cloud broke the silence. They had been staring for a few minutes now and neither him nor Sephiroth had spoken up. Mainly due to the fact that the signboard was just not readable. "I think we should try to go..." he glanced about himself and pointed in a random direction. "...that way."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at the suggestion. "And why would 'that way' be better than any other way?"

"We have to start somewhere," Cloud sighed. "And this signboard isn't of any help at all."

"I can see that," Sephiroth agreed with a snort. He glanced upwards at the sky, then downwards to observe their shadows. Giving the territory a casual sweep with his eyes, he eventually turned and walked in the opposite direction Cloud had pointed down.

Cloud blinked once, then quickly ran after him.

"Okay," the blond tried to keep his annoyance at bay, as he kept up with Sephiroth's long, purposeful strides, "why THIS way, then?"

"From your own words as we have travelled, I assumed that the continental structure of the world has not really changed in any major form, barring Midgar, which is now underwater," Sephiroth explained, "therefore, since we are somewhere near Midgar, the most prudent direction to journey in is east, for that is where the town of Kalm will be." He paused slightly to watch Cloud. "It may not be called Kalm now, but surely some sort of civilization still exists there. And with civilization, comes information. Information is what we require most in our current predicament. Therefore, east is the way we should be heading."

Cloud gaped, but did not say anything. It was true. Kalm was the nearest town at the moment. How Sephiroth had figured out where east laid, however, was a mystery to him. Cloud never had to figure out directions. Not for a long time now, anyway. He had compasses and Vincent for that, after all.

There was silence between the duo as they trudged on. Admittedly, neither Cloud nor Sephiroth were active conversation starters, and they both seemed to sense that of each other as well. The silence was light and comfortable. And in the middle of a wilderness that only had hard, parched soil to offer, it was perhaps a relief to both that there would be no wasting of their breaths on anything as unimportant as mundane chatter.

Eventually, however, Cloud frowned at something, and spoke up. "Is it just me, or are the chocoboes a lot bigger than they were yesterday?"

The two chocoboes who had been scuttling along beside him warked happily.

Without stopping his march, Sephiroth turned back to examine the birds. "You are right," he concluded. "They are visibly bigger than they were yesterday."

"Maybe we should find someone in Kalm who can adopt them," Cloud continued, stroking his chin. "It's going to be hard to take care of them when we don't even know where our next destination may be."

"Or when our next enemy will show up," Sephiroth stopped abruptly. Cloud stopped as well, and the two chocoboes with him. He was unsure about why Sephiroth had suddenly tensed, as if enemies were nearby. All he could sense were the harsh, cutting wind and the smell of burnt mud.

Then it happened.

The previously clear sky suddenly filled out with black, looming clouds, casting a dark pallor over the stretch of land. Cloud felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck before registering several massive shadows flitting over where he and Sephiroth stood. As soon as the shadows passed, the ground trembled with a loud groan. More shadows rushed by them from overhead, and every time a shadow passed, the ground trembled shortly afterwards. As if something massive had just landed.

And something massive certainly had.

The last bit of trembling simmered, and Cloud was finally able to stand without feeling like he was about to throw up from from all the vibrating. Sometimes - no, all the time, actually - he really hated being riddled with the curse of motion sickness.

As soon as the dust cleared, Cloud found himself taking a step back instinctively, his back colliding with Sephiroth's.

The Knights of the Round stared down at them, their gleaming eyes shining out of their armoured heads like beacons of premonition.

Cloud could not help but inhale sharply. "Oh, no." He mumbled under his breath. When and where had the Bazookas gotten THIS materia from?

"Summon creatures?" The tone of disbelief in Sephiroth's voice was subtle, but apparent, even though Cloud was unable to see his expression.

"They're the Knights of the Round," Cloud informed, his voice trembling slightly, "and from the way things are now, I think it is safe to say that we are in deep, deep trouble."

There was a movement from among the circle of Knights. A single Knight - apparently their leader, judging by the crown on his head - had stepped forward. Quickly, both Cloud and Sephiroth turned to face the source of the noise, their weapons pointed in the same direction. There were no chances to be taken. The power of these creatures could be clearly felt even by one who had never experienced battle before.

It was to both Cloud and Sephiroth's surprise, therefore, when the Knight stood at ease, with his hands over the hilt of his sword.

"Cloud Strife," he boomed.

"...yes, King Arthur?" Cloud gaped in confusion.

King Arthur narrowed his eyes behind his helmet. "I know your thoughts, Cloud Strife. You wonder why we, as summon creatures, are not attacking the target of our masters. You remember that you have been our master once, but assume that our loyalties have changed, as easily as the materia that houses us changes hands."

At that, Cloud cleared his throat nervously. He looked up at the intimidating figure of King Arthur, and asked in a small voice, "...you mean it doesn't work that way?"

The brief silence that passed was almost like the calm before the storm.

Then King Arthur burst out laughing, his deep, rumbling chortles reverberating through the entire desert expanse for all and sundry to hear. Cloud and Sephiroth exchanged a quick, puzzling glance between themselves. Neither had thought the situation to be meritorious of such a reaction. When he was done with laughter, he asked, "Do you really think of us as such callous tools, Cloud Strife? Or does the world in general assume that, as well?"

The blond could only scratch his head uneasily. "I meant no offence, your majesty, but I /have/ nearly lost my head to a summon creature that had once belonged to me before. You must excuse me if I have certain... wrong ideas about summon creatures ingrained in me at the present."

"Tell me, Cloud Strife," King Arthur's sombre tone of voice effective captured the two human's undivded attention. "...was Bahamut trying to attack Edge City, or trying to attack you?"

This time, Cloud allowed his jaw to drop. "How did you..." Then he snapped his mouth shut and lowered his head to look at his feet for a long while. "I think... I get what you mean," he eventually said as he lifted his head. "Bahamut wasn't trying to kill ME back then, was he? He was just trying to destroy Midgar... and I happened to be in the way."

"You are both right and wrong," King Arthur replied. He sounded a little sad as he continued, "There are many things that the humans do not yet know about us, whom you term as 'summon creatures'. And none of you have bothered to find out, have you?" There was a mild reprimand in his voice. "Nevertheless, please do not forget this - that no summon creature will ever turn against the first person who summoned them. The lower summons may act on this on pure instincts, but we higher summons know this consciously. However," the mood swiftly shifted, and King Arthur now drew his sword and held it primed.

"Because we know this consciously, we must know, too, whether you remain the same master we have vowed to serve from our beginning." There were sounds of swords being drawn and wands being focused on all around the duo. The Knights were now in position for battle.

This served as a warning sign for Cloud and Sephiroth. They tensed against the warriors who had formed a circle around them. And not a moment too soon, for the first Knight struck suddenly with a long sword. He would have beheaded both the men, if Cloud had not deduced and defected that move cleanly.

Sephiroth lifted the masamune. Then, "No, stay back!" Cloud turned and shouted at him. "I know the sequence of the Knights - this is my battle!" He asserted, before turning back to face the second Knight, who sent a spinning rod in their directions. Cloud managed to send that flying away as well. "Blizzaga!" He casted, forming a shield of ice around them. In the next instant, a jet of fire slammed against the shield, melting it, but the shield had served its purpose and protected the two within. "Quake!" The next spell was cast in quick succession, the wall of earth that rose up absorbing all of the lightning that was about to strike them.

The General was, in a word, amazed at the effective way Cloud next fought off the two massive Knights that bore down on him with weapons ten times his height. A Firaga was cast to melt the ice spell that was then thrown their way. The next Knight was divested of his weapon with a quick, decisive swing. Ultima was then called on to destroy all the small meteors that were raining down from the next Knight's spell.

By now, however, Cloud was breathing heavily from the physical and magical exertion. He barely managed to duck from the next Knight's heavy axe chop. Before the Knight could retrieve the axe, Cloud severed the axe at the handle. He went on a sword grind with the next Knight, and although he managed to overcome his opponent, he was thrown back to the ground from the impact.

Cloud felt, rather than saw, King Arthur raising his massive blade skywards for the final strike. He tried to stand, but his entire body screamed in protest. Looking up, he could see the sharp glint of metal against whatever little light there was in this alternate realm where the summon creatures would drag their victims into. He could not take this head-on, he judged. Quickly charging Ultima, he hoped that he would be in time to at least take away a major part of the damage that was about to be dealt to him.

In a while, though, the problem had all but solved itself.

As King Arthur's sword swung downwards, Cloud's view of it was obscured by a blur of black suddenly appearing in front of him. He caught another glint of metal from the corner of his eyes - this one swinging upwards. There was a loud, unearthly shriek as metal met metal, followed by the sharp squelch of metal cutting metal.

Then his vision cleared, and Cloud could see again.

Sephiroth had sliced King Arthur's sword into very beautiful halves.

The broken half of the blade spun gracefully through the air for a few seconds, then landed on the parched ground with a huge crash, sending tremors throughout the entire land. All who had witnessed what had just happened were frozen - from shock or from disbelief or a horrified mixture of both. A grave silence set in. Nobody dared to move. No one would say a word.

"Excuse me for interrupting," Sephiroth's voice broke the silence and effectively drew everyone out from their stupors. He calmly sheathed his sword, as if he had not just sliced a summon creature's weapon into parts. "...but I should think that I am not so inhuman that I would let a mob maim my one and only anchor to reality in this rather surreal world."

Hearing Sephiroth's antitypical prophetic words about the nature of disposition made Cloud's heart clench. Those words were larger than any sin, and sweeter than any punishment. Quickly shaking his morose thoughts out, Cloud clambered to his feet shakily. The Knights were also starting to move slightly. King Arthur alone had seemingly completely recovered from the event just transpired.

"Cloud Strife," King Arthur boomed. This time, Cloud could literally sense the aura of pride in his tone. "You have always been an amazing man," the liege continued, then turned to Sephiroth, "with even more amazing allies. It is true what you humans say, isn't it? That you must keep your friends close, but your enemies closer..." he trailed off, but seemed to be very amused at the whole thing. Lifting his broken sword by the hilt, he mumbled something, and suddenly, a new blade erupted from the chopped off portion and grew to full length within an instant. It was like the blade had never been dismembered before.

Cloud now found it hard to ignore the questioning stare Sephiroth was giving him. He pretended that he had not noticed by asking, "So... what was that all about anyway? You say you're loyal to your first master, but I felt like I was the one being tested for the loyalty there."

"I have mentioned that there are many things that you humans do not yet know about us summon creatures, have I not?" King Arthur still sounded very amused. Cloud wished he would share the joke. "It will not be appropriate for me to share the information at present. If you are truly searching for an answer, the tools are not far from you. The Great Kalm Library houses many ancient books on the subject. It may be prudent to take a break in your journeying once in a while in lieu."

This drew Sephiroth's attention back at the summon creature. "Wise words, your majesty," Sephiroth countered with a smirk, "should always be accompanied by wise actions."

And for the second time in the span of a single day, King Arthur burst out laughing.

"Very well, very well," the King finally said, and now he was beyond amused. He seemed completely entertained. "Will you allow my knights and I, Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, to bring you to the vicinity of Kalm town before we dissolve the summon barrier?"

"Why," Sephiroth's smirk widened, "I thought you would never ask."

\--

At around evening that very same day, Vincent Valentine stopped abruptly in front of a gleaming green materia, causing Zack the SOLDIER to slam into his back with great force, falling backwards as a result.

"OW!" Zack whined. "Don't you know what brake signals are, grandpa? Try using them once in a while, please?"

But Vincent was not listening. He bent down to pick up the materia, letting its innate power flow through him. Then his lowered head snapped upwards with a jerk. "It's Cloud." He gasped quietly.

"What?" Zack had snuck up beside him in the meantime. "That green little thing there is that 'Cloud' you've been talking about all this time? Man, you sure need to--owuch!!" He did not manage to finish his statement, because Vincent elbowed him in the ribs. Hard.

"This materia belongs to Cloud." Vincent enunciated in a slow, deliberate voice. Zack continued to gag and hop in the background from having all wind knocked of him. "So that means that we are on the right track, at the very least. Perhaps we should catch a vehicle to the nearest town, which would happen to be Kalm." He paused, realising that it was suddenly quiet. No sounds of gagging, breathing, or even hopping. Turning around, Vincent saw Zack looking at something that was shrouded by darkness due to the encroaching night. He shook his head, and walked forward to join his erstwhile companion.

"You're right, you know," Zack said, and he sounded serious. He held a hand out to trace something. As Vincent neared, he saw what that something was.

It was the remnant of a huge sword that had been cleanly sliced off its hilt.

"We're on the right track indeed," Zack nodded, pleased with his deduction. "Because nobody could have done this... except Sephiroth and his masamune." He turned around to grin at Vincent, but Vincent was already halfway walking away. Zack's smile dissolved into a scowl. "Hey! Were you listening to me at all?!"

"If we hurry," Vincent's detached voice drifted over the dry winds, "we might bump into them in Kalm by tonight."

"Yeah?" Zack huffed. But he was resigned. "Whatever, grandpa. Whatever. You're going to buy me a martini when we get there. And a strawberry sherbet. And grapes with babes, okay? And I still want that ice cream, you hear?!"

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
1.oct.2006


	10. Chapter 10

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Ten  
The line between friendship and love.

 

"...What's this?" Sephiroth questioned, in the manner of a man who had just been asked to mitigate between two estranged chocoboes.

Cloud threw open the windows of the room they were in, then turned to face his confused companion. "That," he pointed at the piece of paper he had just passed to Sephiroth, "is a shopping list."

"A shopping list," Sephiroth repeated.

"A shopping list," Cloud confirmed.

A frown took over Sephiroth's countenance. "...So what am I supposed to do with this... 'shopping list'?"

Cloud blinked.

"Should I bring it to the receptionist and inform her that we require these things on the list by the evening?" The General asked in earnest.

After a bit, Cloud eventually realised that Sephiroth was not joking. He turned back to his current task of opening all the windows in the room as he replied, "No, you're supposed to go to the town hall and shop for those groceries from the mart there. Gil's on the table," he gestured at where he had dumped all his possessions, "feel free to use it anyway you want, just don't use it all up."

"...I see," Sephiroth's still puzzled voice could be heard after a short pause. He folded the piece of paper and kept it, making his way towards where the money bag presumably was. "And what will you be doing while I... carry out this mission?"

At that, Cloud burst out laughing. "Mission?!" He finally exclaimed after taking a few seconds to compose himself. "I assure you, Sephiroth, that even if you can't manage to buy a single item on that list, you won't have to suffer fatal consequences." Although he was no longer laughing out loud, the blond continued to snicker. "Mission!" He mumbled under his breath, evidently highly amused by Sephiroth's choice of vocabulary. "Grocery shopping! Mission! You sound like you're the General of SOLDIER or something!"

Although he was slightly miffed by Cloud's continuous snorting, Sephiroth held back from retorting. Instead, he found himself rather struck by another point in Cloud's outburst. "As a matter of fact," he solemnly announced, "I just so happen to be, the General of SOLDIER."

That quickly shut Cloud up. He turned his now wide and surprised eyes towards Sephiroth. "You are?!"

Now that they were on this topic, Sephiroth saw no point in stopping the stream of related questions he had. "Do you not know? Were you not from SOLDIER as well? Your eyes certainly give that away well enough by itself." He noticed that Cloud had suddenly stiffened, making him confident that he was on the right track.

Cloud said nothing for a while, before realising that Sephiroth was expecting an answer to that question. "I..." he started, then clamped his mouth shut. What was he to say? He wanted to lie and hope the other man would never bring it up again, but something in him protested against this option. That, in addition to the fact that Sephiroth was looking at him like he could see right through his every thought and motive, made him hesitant about his initial decision to bluff his way through. After gazing at the ground for a few downcast moments, he lifted his head up. "...I was never in SOLDIER," Cloud decided that this was the most neutral answer he could give for now. He was not sure if he should divulge his status to this stranger, though he had his suspicions that Sephiroth somehow knew. That, and the niggling doubt at the back of his head that he found Sephiroth familiar but could not for sure say why.

Sephiroth was unfazed by Cloud's reply. "So you do know who the SOLDIERs are."

Again there was a silence. "I can't deny that," Cloud eventually said, sounding slightly miffed about it. "But I don't remember anything about a Sephiroth being in SOLDIER..." he paused and his features darkened as he pondered about what he had just said. "...no... I can't remember..." He muttered, more to himself than to anybody else.

Sephiroth took time to digest that. "Perhaps the SOLDIER you know was from an era after my time. Nevertheless this gives rise to yet another question that has been hounding me for a bit." Sephiroth folded his arms across his chest and stared poignantly at Cloud. "Even if SOLDIER lasted generations after my time, it cannot possibly have lasted thousands of years into the future. You don't look past 30, and yet you talk as if you came from a time when Midgar was still at its peak. How old exactly are you?"

"Ah..." Cloud shook his head, inwardly cursing himself for not watching his speech more carefully. "...that is something I would rather not talk about."

The General stared at him.

Some awkward fidgeting later, Cloud glanced up from the floor. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you?"

"I cannot believe unless first you tell me," was Sephiroth's rejoinder.

Cloud ran a hand through his hair. "...To tell you the truth, I don't really remember myself. It's been a rather long time. You're right to say that I was born during the time when Midgar was at its peak, though. And let's leave it as that for now. As for SOLDIER..." he frowned, "...I remember quite clearly that it didn't quite last past Midgar's destruction, so if you were the General..." Cloud eyed Sephiroth strangely. "...if you were the General... then why is it... that I don't remember... anything about that...?"

Leaning back slightly while folding his arms across his chest, Sephiroth commented wryly, "It seems like you cannot remember quite a lot of things."

"That's not true," Cloud resisted the pout that was setting in on his face. "It's just that certain particular things in the past... are unclear... like there are holes in my mind that I can't quite seem to fill..." Shaking his head, Cloud sighed. "It's not the first time it's happened. There's no point trying to guess what's going on for now." He gave Sephiroth a scrutinising look. "So, even if you speak the truth, and really are the General of SOLDIER, you're still not excused from doing the grocery shopping, you know."

"Have I ever said anything to suggest the contrary?" Sephiroth coolly replied. "Very well, since your memory is spotty as regards the past, I see no point in pressing on any further. I am now clear about your date of origin, and that should suffice for now. Although I am highly curious to the cause of your longevity, I suppose that also classified as something you would rather not talk about at the present moment?"

Cloud attempted a sheepish grin to that. Then he turned slightly serious. "I don't know what force of nature threw you forward in time so many years, but since you're actually here, then that means there must be a way back. I know you're probably curious about my background, but like I told you, I'm not from SOLDIER, no matter how my appearance may suggest otherwise." He shifted his gaze to the ground. "I'm not important at all, in the grand scheme of things," he whispered, as if to himself, then lifted his head up and said in a more audible voice, "I agreed to help you to go back to where you came from, and I have no intention of renegading on that promise, so let's just focus on one thing at a time first, okay?"

There was a marked note of finality in Cloud's tone. Not that Sephiroth was very much in the mood to argue back, however. He had confirmed his suspicions about Cloud, and that would give him food for thought for a while. He decided that Cloud was right, in that they needed to be focused, so he nodded slightly. "I do agree that doing things one at a time tend to yield better results. So I shall leave you to your own matters, while I..." he took the shopping list out and narrowed his eyes at it. "...attempt to... shop for groceries."

Cloud did nothing to hide the grin of amusement that had taken over his face. "I have no doubt you'll be able to perform this mission successfully, General Sephiroth," he did a mock salute, then made his way to the door. "I'll be back around dinner time, hopefully with some good news. If you're bored, well... you could busy yourself with some books over there," he gestured to a nearby shelf, "...getting yourself familiar with the current world wouldn't hurt in the long run, I'm sure."

"Indeed," Sephiroth walked towards the shelf to examine the books there with interest. The range of titles suggested a general mix of genres with no specific aim. 'Beyond the Beyond', '101 Recipes for 101 Festivals', 'The Line Between Friendship and Love', 'Ipsen's Abridged Edition of Popular Fairytales'... amongst others. At the end of his brief perusal, however, he noticed that Cloud was still hovering around the room door. He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at the smaller man in query.

After a bit more fidgeting, Cloud finally opened his mouth. "I... just wanted to thank you for not trying to probe. It means a lot to me." He sounded contrite, although Sephiroth was not sure for what. Taking a huge breath, Cloud continued, "I'm actually a little confused; having a person who apparently came from my time - my original time, here in the far distant future with me. I suppose I lapsed in judgment and revealed things I shouldn't have because there are just so many things about the past that I miss terribly..." There was a pause. "I guess I must have confused you too, huh?"

This time, Sephiroth allowed himself a tiny quirk of the lips. "That is quite an understatement, but you are on the right track. It was quite hard for me to understand how I was supposedly in the future when someone of my era was right there beside me. However, it is nothing you should be worried about for now," he waved his hand dismissively. "We will speak about this at a future, more appropriate time."

Cloud nodded, his expressions brightening. "Okay then. See you later!" With that, he slipped quietly out of the door and vanished from sight.

Sephiroth watched as the door clicked shut. Then, very carefully, he unfolded the piece of paper in his hand and stared.

Now if only he could figure out what on earth 'Instant Ramen' was supposed to be.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
31.aug.2007


	11. Chapter 11

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Eleven  
The truth never changes.

 

"I really don't get how a short shopping trip could have resulted in this," Cloud half-sighed, signing his name on the paper that was given him. The policeman quirked an eyebrow at his muttering, but otherwise said nothing.

"Personally, I do not get it myself, either," Sephiroth answered, slight annoyance evident in his tone. "Many of your customs make absolutely no sense to me."

Cloud chuckled, setting down the pen and slipping the form back to the nonchalant officer. The officer glanced through the form, nodded and waved the duo off, like they were in his way of a long-awaited nap. "Considering how much has changed since our era, I suppose I have to agree," Cloud said, while leading the way out of the police station. The two of them proceeded to walk slowly along the evening road back to the inn. "What happened that you had to be sent to the police station of all places, anyway?" He asked, truly curious.

Sephiroth made a subtle face. "There were exactly two trolleys, one spoon, one fork and seven rolls of toilet paper involved. What they all added up to, I have no idea."

Before Sephiroth had even finished his sentence, Cloud had already burst out laughing. While Cloud continued laughing, Sephiroth shook his head.

"I'm sorry," Cloud eventually managed to compose himself. "But I think... I can sort of understand. You're not going to be able to adapt to society here unless you have a guidebook of sorts..." At that, Cloud blinked twice. He stopped walking and put two fingers to his chin. "A guidebook," he repeated to himself. "A guidebook, huh... I think I may know just the thing..."

Following Cloud's cue, Sephiroth stopped walking as well. "Are you telling me there are actually /guidebooks/ on cultural discrepancies between different eras?"

"Something like that," Cloud nodded. He glanced upwards at the sky, noting the setting sun. "But I think it's a bit too late to be going to that place at this point of time. I'll take you there tomorrow. Besides, I need to go somewhere first, before the place closes," he explained, already turning his attention to another path. "Sephiroth, do you remember the way back to the inn?"

"Yes."

"Then, can you head back first to put the groceries away?" Cloud turned around and asked. "I need to go somewhere first, before the place closes. I'll explain after I get back," as he spoke, he was already jogging down another roadway. "See you later!" And with that, he set off into a full sprint, vanishing around the next corner.

Sephiroth allowed himself to stare wordlessly at Cloud's abrupt exit for exactly three seconds. There was something about Cloud that struck him as familiar. It was as if he remembered seeing Cloud before somewhere, but the ambiguity in his memory puzzled him. He was not known to ever forget a person he had met before, no matter how brief the acquaintance, or even if it was merely a photograph from a cadet file. Why was it, then, that he could not seem to place Cloud's identity anywhere amongst his vast storehouse of known faces, despite the nagging feeling that he had seen this person before? As soon as he started his train of thoughts, however, Sephiroth shook his head to clear it. He turned and walked towards the inn, deciding that he was inviting too many unwanted stares for standing and staring at nothing in the middle of a broadway.

Who knew which strange culture he could be offending by doing that? He really did not want to be invited into the police station again.

\--

When Cloud returned to find Sephiroth slurping instant noodles from a cup, he stood at the doorway for a long time, shell-shocked.

"I am insulted that you assume I would not even be able to read simple instructions," Sephiroth said in response to Cloud's inactivity, completely reading his mind.

Quickly collecting his jaw from the floor, Cloud smiled shyly and put a hand on his head. "Given your current track record, you can't really blame me, can you?" He chuckled slightly. Walking into the room, he started to rummage through the freshly gotten groceries for his share of dinner.

"So you have settled your business?" Sephiroth asked plainly.

"Umhm," was Cloud's answer, as he brandished an unopened cup of instant noodles from the pile. "I just went to the Kalm Post Office to leave an auto-message for a friend who might have more knowledge than me about all this time business."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow in a show of doubt to that.

"Well, he's older than me," Cloud shrugged, having put hot water into his noodles. He sat back and relaxed. "And he reads a lot more than I do, at any rate." Suddenly, Cloud sat back up to full attention. "Speaking of reading, we might be spending some time in this town doing just that."

"Oh, really," Sephiroth was unimpressed. "Why would we want to do that for?"

Cloud stared at the General. "Don't you know where this place is?" He caught himself. "Oh, right. You don't."

"I know that we are in Kalm Town," Sephiroth supplied, "however I fail to see the connection between the town and any reading activity of any sort."

"Kalm Town has changed since our time," Cloud pointed out, "and now it is most well known for The Great Kalm Library, which has a copy of practically all the books from known history until now. The Great Kalm Library is a vast storehouse of every sort of knowledge from your time till now. What do you think that means?"

The pieces clicked in Sephiroth's mind quickly. "I see. So, you are saying that, one of those books from that reservoir of knowledge might just contain the key to the solution I need to find my way back home...?"

Cloud simply nodded. "If you can come here, then there must be a way back. Even if that way is currently blocked or inaccessible for some reason, it still is there. That is an underlying, basic truth about travelling of any sort, and the truth never changes. Somebody must have explored this possibility during all these centuries. Now, all we have to do is to find a record of it," was Cloud's reasoning.

"Very true," Sephiroth found himself agreeing. He stood to walk to the trashbin, dumping the remains of his quick dinner inside. "Then I suppose there is nothing for us to do tonight but to turn in." He stated.

"Ugh huh," Cloud nodded in vague agreement, obviously still thinking about something. Then, he stood up. "I'm going to the bar to find out more information about any anomalies in the world situation first. As for you, umm, yeah. I think you should just stay in the inn, to avoid any further... accidents," he gave a sheepish smile. Without waiting for a reply, he turned towards the door again. "See you tomorrow!"

As much as Sephiroth would like to protest, he had no choice but to yield to the truth of Cloud's words.

He really, really did not need to be invited to the police station again, dammitall.

\--

The sign above them read 'Midway Post Office'.

"What is this place?" Zack asked, peering at the huge hall of complex devices. Lit-up and darkened screens alike decorated all the walls of the place, with several more stands of similar nature standing erect in the middle area. There appeared to be no attendant. The few people loitering around were all engrossed with tapping out instructions on the input devices before them, their attention completely transfixed on the screens before them.

"It is called the Post. It is a place of correspondence, and this is the Midway Branch," was Vincent's brief answer. He tapped something into a stand and the darkened screen before the duo flickered to life. "Friends and relatives can leave messages for each other at this place. It will be stored in an archive that is accessible from any Post Office in the world - for a fee, of course." Even as he explained, Vincent inserted a few coins into the slot at the side of the machine. The screen flickered again, then a list of text started to scroll.

"That sounds like my PHS," Zack remarked.

Vincent nodded. "Technology has been swinging to and fro over the centuries. Mobile devices has yet to be fully tapped into in this current era, but the principle is similar." He tapped on the input device and a new screen appeared, making him pause. "It's a message from Cloud," he mumbled, slightly surprised. He had come here with the intention of leaving a message, not expecting to receive anything, as Cloud was usually secretive about his actions.

"Oh?" Zack's interest was piqued at the mention of the name. "What's it say?"

".........." Vincent was unsure if he was reading what he was reading. He stepped slightly to a side so that Zack was able to read it as well, which the SOLDIER did. His eyebrows raised slightly at the message.

It read: What do you know about time travelling?

Zack frowned at Vincent. "Why would your friend be asking about something like that?"

Staring at Zack, Vincent said, "Is that not obvious? If he is with Sephiroth, they have most likely done some talking about Sephiroth's origin. Either Cloud is curious about the technical details, or he wishes to help Sephiroth return, thereby the question."

There was a silence as the duo pondered over what this new turn of events meant. Eventually, Zack broke the silence by saying, "Well, what are you going to say to him now? Actually, where exactly are they, anyway?"

"We had a pact to keep locations and names anonymous when using public systems like these, so Cloud has shielded the message's place of creation, which means I am unable to determine where exactly he is at the moment," said Vincent, as he tapped something into the device. "Time travelling - I know as much as you do," he monotonously intoned his reply to Cloud while tapping the words out as well, "so I will not be of much help. Perhaps we should regroup." Looking over the message one more time, he recorded it into the system, satisfied.

Turning around, he saw that Zack was looking at him expectantly. "Well?" Asked the SOLDIER. "What now?"

"While we wait for his reply," Vincent pointed towards a door by the side of the hall, "we sleep."

Zack sighed. "I don't suppose there's a pool or anywhere I can go to let my eyes feast on the fairer sex?"

Before he had even finished his sentence, Vincent had already walked out of earshot.

\--

When Sephiroth opened his eyes at exactly 0600 hours in the morning, Cloud was already up and about.

Slowly raising to a sitting position, the General stared questioningly at the busy blond. "Oh, hi," Cloud greeted, without looking at Sephiroth. "Don't mind me, I'm just trying to pack."

"Pack?" Sephiroth was perplexed. "Did you not mention we will be staying in Kalm Town for a little while more?"

"Yeah, we are," Cloud answered in the same casual tone. "But not in this inn. I figured that if we're going to be looking up stuff in the Great Kalm Library, we might as well make use of their Camp Study Room. It's a... room where you can rent to stay in while you do your research and stuff," he waved his hand around vaguely. "I didn't initially go there because it didn't seem like we would be spending a lot of time there, but now that I think about it, we might as well, huh?" He hurled one last bag of something into a pack of sorts and tossed it to Sephiroth. "Here, you take that. I'll take this," he pointed at the other pack which he must have prepared prior to Sephiroth's awakening.

Sephiroth stood gracefully and turned to getting himself ready as well. "And I suppose there is yet another cultural reason why we are travelling at this time in the morning?"

"Oh, well, not really," Cloud laughed. "I'm just an early-waker."

"Thank the Planet for that," Sephiroth almost sighed in relief, recalling the times when he had to use bodily force to oust Zack from his nest of blankets in the morning when they had missions. Cloud gave him a bemused look in response, but did not pursue the subject.

In a few more minutes, they were out of the inn and walking towards the Great Kalm Library. Owing to the time, there were not that many people out yet. The air was heavy with mist and though cool, there was no breeze. It was almost surreal, to Sephiroth, who had never had such a relaxing time in all his life of service to Shinra. He found that he did not dislike such a lifestyle, wondering again what purpose he had been sent here for.

"Yesterday," Cloud suddenly spoke up, giving Sephiroth a slight surprise. He turned to stare at Cloud, who continued on, oblivious, "when I was at the bar, I heard some interesting news about the Bazookas."

"Really," Sephiroth raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

Cloud nodded. "There are some rumours that the Bazookas have suffered some major setback and are unable to actively keep up with their regime of force for the time being, so there has been no major news about them for a while."

Sephiroth frowned. "Major setback, huh..."

"With the ceasing of attacks from the Bazookas, the Planet is slowly starting to return to its normal state as well," Cloud explained. "For example, up in the north, the continent has stopped shifting its plates around, and the snow is much more bearable now. Over at the west, the desert is actually starting to regain its regular seasons of downpour as well. Good news all around, though some people are still confused whether they should trust the Seers or the Bazookas," he chortled slightly at that. "If you ask me, though, they're both nuts. Ah, but who am I to tell the Planet what to do," he eventually shrugged with a wistful smile. "Oh!" He stopped walking abruptly. "Here we are!" He pointed.

Following Cloud's finger, Sephiroth looked at the colossal building that stood before them. The doorway pillars alone stretched up so high, it was almost as if they touched the clouds in the sky. The structure itself looked like it spanned the entire width of the city of Kalm from end to end. Although he managed not to gape, Sephiroth could not believe his eyes. He had always thought that Shinra HQ was needlessly big enough, as it were. Now, confronted with a building that was many times the size of that, he realised that in order to survive in this world with his sanity intact, he had better broaden his viewpoint or else.

"It's big, isn't it?" Cloud almost sounded proud. He started to walk again, beckoning at Sephiroth. "This way, follow me." He led the way to where a bored looking staff was sitting near a great double-leaf door.

"Good morning and welcome to the Great Kalm Library," the staff greeted, then yawned. "Unfortunately, opening hours are from 0900 hours until 2100 hours daily, therefore we regret to inform you that..."

"Ah," Cloud interrupted, holding a hand up. "My name is Ipsen. I made a reservation for a Camp Study Room last night."

"Oh," the staff exclaimed monotonously, tapping on the device before her to check the validity of that statement. "That's right, Mr. Ipsen. You have indeed requested for a Camp Study Room to be ready by early morning today. As you know, the Great Kalm Library strongly encourages research to be done, and therefore users of the Camp Study Room are not restricted by the public opening hours of the Library, and..."

"Err, yes, I think I know all of that quite well, thank you," Cloud held his hand up again. "May we have the access cards now?"

"Certainly, sir, Library protocol to explain, you see," the staff sighed and handed over two cards. "Here are your cards, and have a nice day, gentlemen," she glanced at Sephiroth for the first time since the duo's arrival, and went silent for a few seconds.

Sephiroth stared back in confusion. That is, until Cloud stomped down on his foot. Hard.

"Don't stare! Don't make any sound! Don't say anything!" He hissed urgently. Turning back to the staff, who appeared to be getting ready to do something, he smiled and said out loud, "Thanks and bye!" Without waiting for the staff's reaction, he kicked the door wide open and stampeded into the library proper in record time.

They arrived at the Camp Study Room common area quickly, and there were already other people mingling around there, some deeply engrossed with their research. After locating their assigned room, Cloud and Sephiroth stepped in, relaxing from the tension of the exchange with the staff. 

"In conclusion," Sephiroth shook his head, "I suspect that it isn't so much a cultural discrepancy thing, than it is a strange feminine ritual thing."

Cloud laughed. "I think I am inclined to believe that." Saying which, he surveyed the room. Quickly, he hauled his pack into a nearby cabinet and signalled for Sephiroth to do the same, which he did.

When they had settled that, Cloud dusted his hands and turned his attention to a small machine at the corner of the room. "We can look up the layout of the Library in this machine, and mark the sections that might have the books we're trying to find before we head there."

Sephiroth looked at the layout. "That is a very big map."

"And it's only one storey," Cloud pointed out. He took out a pen and paper and began to writing things down. "For your study of modern society, I suggest that we start with the Humanities Section about Ancient Cultures... and then slowly move towards the Modern Cultures section from there. They're connected," he said, while jotting down the section number. "That shouldn't take us long. After we finish that, we'll head for the main dish of this whole excursion..."

"The Science Section," Sephiroth finished the sentence for Cloud, narrowing his eyes.

There was a short pause as Cloud navigated to the layout of the Science Section. He eventually drew up a blank and sighed. "Unfortunately, there is no specialised sub-section that deals with time travelling, so we may have to scour the whole section in hopes of finding something that may be of help."

"So that's the reason why we're staying in the Library?" Sephiroth asked.

"Yes, yes, it's a lot more convenient this way, don't you think?" Cloud smiled somewhat abjectly. "Because, the Science Section alone is, you know, half the size of this entire Library?"

Sephiroth closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

This was going to be a lot tougher than he thought.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
21.sep.2007


	12. Chapter 12

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Twelve  
Resistance is futile.

 

As Sephiroth was going through a shelf in the Humanities Section for books about customs, he was attracted by something else instead. He pulled a dark, leather-bound book out from the shelf, and stared at it.

"Hey, Sephiroth," Cloud whispered excitedly from behind, where he was busy investigating another shelf. "What do you think about this?" He turned around to point Sephiroth towards a certain book, and in so doing, noticed what Sephiroth was holding in his hand.

"'Ipsen's Abridged Edition of Popular Fairytales'," Sephiroth read the title of the book out in an undertone, then waved the book in front of Cloud. "Did you not identify yourself as Ipsen to that staff outside just now?" He asked.

Cloud did not answer the question immediately, but he took the book from Sephiroth. "Oh, right," he said eventually, a soft smile pulling at his lips. "I wrote this book," he admitted, without fanfare. "Ipsen is a name I commonly use for public purposes." Tilting a head questioningly at the taller man, he asked, "Anything amiss with that?"

Sephiroth knew that Cloud was not lying, and if anything, it was almost as if the whole thing was something very minor to him. "I am curious about the content of this book, seeing as you wrote it. 'Ipsen', huh..." He frowned, thinking deeply about the circumstances surrounding Cloud. "If I live a life such as yours, I, too, would like to hide from the prying eyes of the public by creating a replicate persona. Who knew what might happen when some over-zealous scientist gets wind of your actual age and ability, and decides to use you to his own benefit?" By now, it was almost as if he was rambling, and he appeared to realise it. Laughing softly, he put a hand over his face. "Forgive me, I was merely talking to myself." He turned to the wide-eyed Cloud and quirked his lips upwards slightly. "All of that, when what I had intended to do was simply to praise you for the prudence you have displayed in your manner of handling your public identity. You have certainly done very well."

If it was possible, Cloud's already wide eyes widened even further. Although he was quick to clamp his gawking mouth shut, he was unable to stop the blush from spreading through his cheeks. Even though Sephiroth was someone he had only met just recently, Cloud could not help but feel nostalgic around him. He could not help but look up to the authoritative man, and not in the same way he looked up to Vincent, either. How long had it been since somebody he admired took note of what he did, and praised him sincerely about it?

Cloud then kicked himself internally, realising that he was acting like a schoolboy. "I...I'm OLDER than you, Sephiroth!" Cloud exclaimed, raising his voice, although still whispering. He /was/ older, was he not? "You'd think I'd KNOW the best way to handle things like that!" He huffed, face redder than before. "I'm not a kid!!"

Sephiroth was obviously still amused. "You are right, and I tend to forget about that fact sometimes by looking at your appearance. I apologise," he said earnestly. Before Cloud had a chance to reply, Sephiroth continued, remarking, "I think we have spent enough time here. I should be able to draw up a good enough picture of the current society by examining these references."

Taken slightly aback by the sudden shift in topic, Cloud was silent for a short while. "All right, if you say so," he finally managed to utter. "Do you want to return to the room to look these through or do you want to use that table over there?" Cloud tilted his head in the direction of an empty table slightly further down from the shelves they were picking books out from.

"The table will do," Sephiroth nodded. "I should not take long to examine these. And once I am done, we can return the books immediately and proceed to the Science Section proper." He was already walking towards the table as he narrated his plans for the day.

Wordlessly, Cloud followed. Soon, they settled down on the empty table and embarked on their self appointed mission. As Sephiroth had all the books pertaining to their subject of investigation, Cloud was left with Ipsen's fairytales to entertain himself with. He figured that if Sephiroth had any questions, he would ask. Casually flipping open the book of fairytales, Cloud remembered that he had been reading it aloud just a few days ago, when Vincent dropped by for a visit. After discussing about the story, he then went off with Vincent to...

...to where?

Pangs of a headache began to attack Cloud, and he had to shake his head furiously in an attempt to dispel them. This did not escape the notice of Sephiroth, who glanced up from his book and asked, "What seems to be the matter?"

"...nothing," Cloud put a hand to his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut. "Just an old, recurring problem."

A period of silence occurred, in which Sephiroth continued to thoughtfully observe Cloud. Apparently concluding that it was not his business to intrude, he shrugged and returned his attention to the book he was reading.

Relieved from the uneasy feeling of being scrutinised, Cloud sighed lightly. The headache gradually subsided as he diverted his thoughts away from thinking about whatever it was he could not remember. He clenched his fists and glared at the book he had opened and set on the table before him. Perhaps concentrating on something that was not memory related was the safest bet for now.

Flipping about randomly, Cloud eventually paused at an elaborate illustration depicting a royal wedding ceremony - a picture he was intimately familiar with. Smiling nostalgically, he turned the pages back and eventually found the story which the picture belonged to. "The Frozen Prince," he said softly. This caused Sephiroth to look up again, distracted and somewhat intrigued.

"The Frozen Prince?" Sephiroth asked, with a quirk of his eyebrow.

Not aware that he had actually read the title out loud, Cloud jumped slightly at Sephiroth's question. He blinked sheepishly and nodded. "It's a very popular fairytale. It has been adapted countless times into plays, and was also the centre of furious intellectual debate for a while," Cloud explained.

"Debate? On a fairytale?" Sephiroth appeared unconvinced. "What on earth was so controversial about it?"

"Probably because the story itself was too open-ended," Cloud shrugged. "People love their closures and happily-ever-afters, but when I wrote the story, I was hoping to inject a bit of realism into it. While technically the story is a happily-ever-after, there is much leeway for anything at all to happen in the end." He relaxed against the back of his chair and sighed. "I'm not sure why it became so popular, though."

Sephiroth frowned slightly. "That certainly sounds... interesting."

"Do you want to read it?" Cloud sat up and asked slyly, pushing the book slightly towards the General.

"Perhaps the man himself should offer his insight about the tale instead?" Sephiroth countered, smiling triumphantly when Cloud dropped the knavish look on his face. "It would certainly serve as the best sort of reference."

At that, Cloud started to gape like a goldfish. Presumably, he was attempting to find the right words to give a rebuttal. Soon, however, he shut his mouth and pouted slightly, apparently giving up. "I walked right into that one, didn't I?" Was what he eventually said, huffily.

Sephiroth's smile widened as he tilted his head to a side in anticipation.

"It's not really anything epic," Cloud sighed, and started to explain. "Basically, there was this prince who developed some kind of a complex about his perfection and offended some witch, who cursed him. He was to find someone willing to marry him by seven days or his kingdom would be destroyed. However, because of the curse, people did not see him as a good-looking prince anymore. Instead he appeared as different things to different people. He met up with princesses who claimed to be interested in him, but they turned him down because of his outlook. The seventh day arrived and the prince and his people gave up hope, but the witch reappeared and announced that she would not destroy the kingdom after all, for a suitable candidate had indeed been found. A great wedding ceremony is held, with all the princesses from before arriving at the palace to claim the position, and the story ends without ever announcing who the suitable candidate was." Cloud breathed in deeply. "That's about it."

"A fairytale of epic proportions indeed, if you ask me," Sephiroth chuckled. Cloud looked away sheepishly. "Were you very bored when you wrote it?" He questioned.

Idly fiddling with the page corners of the book, Cloud shrugged. "Not really. A slew of 'fairytales' had developed over the years, and they were mostly twisted versions of events that happened in our time - a long, long time ago, that is. As there were many wars along the path of history, written records seldom survived, so these stories were usually passed down by word of mouth. They got from bad to worse as time went on, so I decided to write a compiled version to keep it mostly harmless." He grinned. "Most of the characters in those fairytales are based on my friends." He added, as an afterthought. "And some of them, my enemies." He paused, frowning. "My enemies... my enemies? ...who...?" He mumbled under his breath.

The searing pain behind his eyes returned with a vengeance, and Cloud barely managed to stop his head from hitting the table. The Planet really did not want him to remember something, and he had learnt the hard way that when things like this happened, it was best to just let sleeping dogs lie. While he tried to calm his agitated mind down, he heard the loud sound of a book being slammed shut from somewhere in front of him. Jolted from his reverie, he turned his attention to the source of the noise.

In front of him, Sephiroth held a closed book in his hands, staring at nothing in particular. Eventually he placed the book onto the stack beside him on the table, and stood. "I am done," he said plainly. "Shall we move to the Science Section?"

Trying not to goggle, Cloud nodded. The loud sound of the book being closed had saved him from further mental anguish, which he was grateful for. If he had not known better, he would have thought Sephiroth had done it on purpose. He stood as well, but stopped Sephiroth from attempting to take the books to return to the shelves. "Leave them," Cloud whispered, "you wouldn't want a librarian breathing down your neck for putting them back in the wrong place, so just let them handle the reshelving," he explained.

Sephiroth blinked, nodding to indicate his understanding.

They moved hushly across the massive main hall of the library together. As the Science Section was exceedingly large, they located it in no time at all. There were already many early birds gathered there, poring over one book or another. Sephiroth surveyed the scene with something akin to approval, and this did not go unnoticed by Cloud.

"Like what you see?" He asked with a quirk of the lips.

Sephiroth turned to stare at the blond sternly, and Cloud almost laughed out loud there and then. "As a matter of fact, I do," Sephiroth said, returning his glance to the voluminous amount of books before him. "I may not have the best impression of men of science in particular, but I do enjoy the subject to a great deal."

"Yeah, I know you liked to read," Cloud said, his eyes slightly glazed over.

"You do?" Sephiroth asked inquiringly.

The dazed-looking Cloud nodded. "You always had a penchant for research, didn't you. And the Nibelheim library was where it all started..." Cloud's eyes glowed intensely for a split second, before returning to its usual radiance. He blinked a couple of times, no longer looking like he was in a trance. Turning to Sephiroth, he continued the conversation in an entirely different direction. "That's nice and everything, but I think we should split up and briefly scan through the section for anything to do with time travelling. Let's meet back here again in maybe an hour or so." He pointed at the spot they were standing on. It was the entrance of the Science Section proper, so it would not be difficult to locate.

"Very well," Sephiroth eventually said, after a brief moment of contemplative silence. He decided he would not pursue Cloud's ominous outburst for now. "I will see you again in an hour."

\--

Cloud and Sephiroth spent most of their waking hours for the next few days prowling the Science Section of the Kalm Library for any information they could about time travelling. Soon, it became evident that either nobody was interested in time travelling, or somebody was making a deliberate effort to hide any written records about the technology from sight. Cloud threw his hands up in the air in resignation after the third day or so. "I give up!" He sighed. "We're on a wild goose's chase here."

"Sadly, I am inclined to agree," Sephiroth quipped. "For a subject that has records about technology as obscure as..." he looked at the contents of a book he currently had open, "...cheese grafting... the section is surprisingly lacking in the important field of time physics."

"The only thing that comes remotely close is the small chapter about 'Time Compression' written by Professor Odine in his physics book," Cloud took the book in question and displayed it. "Interesting though it may be, if you were really sent here by 'time compression', then it should mean that all time from past, present and the future has become one concurrent stream. However, as we can see, the past and the present are still very clearly divided. This means that you weren't sent here using that method. Once that is struck out..." Cloud lowered his head and frowned at the stacks of books they had managed to collect over the past few days. "...it really doesn't give us much else to work with."

Sephiroth nodded. "Whatever the case, it does not appear we will learn anything new by staying in this Library anymore," he remarked, slightly annoyed. Whether that he had wasted precious time looking for something that did not exist, or that he was going to have to leave this big, resourceful library, even he had no idea.

Oblivious to Sephiroth's minor internal conflict, Cloud made a random noise to indicate his assent. He rose from the chair he was seated in and pointed down the exit. "I'll let the admin know about our departure. Hope you don't mind doing the packing. I'll be right back." With that, he scampered off.

It took Sephiroth approximately three seconds to fully realise that Cloud had left - and only after the blond had turned the corner and completely vanished from sight, too. Blinking, the General turned his mind away from the hazy web of thoughts that had formed throughout the past few days while he investigated the subject of time travelling. He was not used to being left in the dark, and usually he could derive at some sort of a plausible theory about anything after ploughing through a few select books. Now, however, he was just confused about what to do next. And that, to him, was nothing less than a great big spanner in the works.

As he continued to ponder, he noticed a flicker of green from the corner of his eyes. The library was well lit, but not too brightly or harshly - probably for ambience and also the sanity of the sun-starved scholars spending most of their days in this place. Green lighting, however, had not been something Sephiroth had seen for the past few days. He turned towards the source of the light and narrowed his eyes at what he saw.

Sparks and tendrils of green energy were gently stroking outwards from a deocrative statue of a goddess carved into a pillar that supported the corner of the vast room he was currently in. Glancing around, Sephiroth saw that nobody else appeared to have noticed the oddity. He rose from his seat and walked over to the pillar, curious but cautious.

It was when he stood directly before the statue that the voices came.

'Child of the Calamity...' It started as a soft, melodious cooing of sorts. 'Child of the Calamity... remember your promise... remember your promise...'

Sephiroth stared openly at the tendrils of green energy, which at this close proximity he now recognised it to be Mako, the Planet's lifeforce. Was it just him, or was the Lifestream actually /talking/ to him?

'Child of the Calamity...' the voice, feminine and motherly, said again, confirming his suspicions that yes, the Lifestream was indeed talking to him. This time, the voice was firm and echoed loudly in Sephiroth's mind. 'Remember your promise...'

The General found himself frowning. Since the voice spoke directly into his mind, he tried to speak back on the same plane. 'Who are you?' He asked pointedly.

The voice ignored his query. 'Remember your promise...' it repeated, and Sephiroth felt like poking the Masamune into the pillar right there and then, if only to get the voice to stop repeating itself. 'Resistance is futile, poor child... you must repay us... you must repay...'

'I do not remember owing a dismembered voice anything,' Sephiroth retorted, in the most polite mind-voice he had.

That, in retrospect, was a bad thing to do. The moment his final words left his mouth, Sephiroth found his mind being overwhelmed by a surge of murmurs, chatters, screeches and wailings that was mind-boggling enough to almost make him drop to his knees. He steadied himself by placing a hand on the wall beside the pillar. The loud voices got louder and louder as he found himself being drawn closer and closer to the statue with tendrils of Lifestream stroking around it.

'You will help us!' The voices collected themselves together in one loud, concerted effort to push his consciousness away so they could claim it for their own. The more he stared at the green energy, the more he found himself being swayed by their urgent and lulling voices. 'You still owe us! You must repay us! You will go! You will go to the Mythril Mines! You have promised! You will go!! You--'

"Sephiroth!!"

The General straightened himself in shock. He glanced downwards to see an anxious Cloud staring up at him. Cloud had a hand tightly gripped around his forearm. It was with relief and gratitude that he realised Cloud had - knowingly or not - rescued him from some strange fate the Planet apparently had in store for him. He returned his attention to the statue quickly after this realisation, but was disappointed to see that the Lifestream had already receded into nothingness.

"What happened?" Cloud asked, releasing his grip on Sephiroth's arm. "You were completely stoned for a while. I must have been trying to get your attention for the past one minute!"

Sephiroth pursed his lips, searching for the right words to say. "You may not believe me," he eventually stated. "In fact, I do not quite believe it myself, yet."

Noticing that Sephiroth had been staring at something in front all the while, Cloud turned to see what it was. He had a sharp intake of breath when he saw the statue. "Minerva!" He whispered harshly - almost spat, actually. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at Cloud's quiet outburst. The blond continued to fume for a few seconds. He then turned slightly angry eyes at Sephiroth. "What did you hear?"

It was strange that Cloud appeared to know what had just transpired between Sephiroth and the statue, as implausible as the whole thing might have seemed. "It was quite incoherent," he thought the better of asking Cloud how he knew, concentrating instead on the question at hand. "But there was a voice telling me I needed to go to the Mythril Mines."

Cloud blinked once in response to that. "Is that all you heard?" He asked in slight disbelief. From his long, long, really long acquaintance with the Planet, he knew that she usually talked in riddles. There had to be more to it than just a simple location.

"Well, it was all the important information it could give, anyway," Sephiroth held back, and he knew Cloud knew it. However, he did not see any point in providing more information - his mind was still in a bit of a haze anyway. "...beneath all the name-calling and accusations about how I appear to owe it a debt which I have no knowledge of incurring, that is."

Cloud's eyes widened at first. Then, to Sephiroth's surprise, the blond started to giggle. He put a hand over his mouth before it exploded into an all-out laughing spree. Waiting a few seconds for Cloud to calm down, Sephiroth asked when he felt Cloud was composed enough, "Whatever seems to be so funny?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Cloud immediately replied, still trying to rein in his laughter. "I'm not laughing at you, but at the voice that spoke to you," he descended into another fit of giggling. "You have no idea how right you are with that last line... being accused of a debt you have no knowledge of incurring..." He gave one last chortle. "Even up till today, I'm still repaying that non-existent debt, you know."

Sephiroth processed the newly gained information carefully. "You seem to imply that the Lifestream speaks freely to the people of the future world."

Cloud's mouth opened in surprise. He was apparently alarmed that his words appeared to have given such an impression. "No, no," he quickly corrected. "They choose who they speak to. I'm just one of those they pick on more often than the others," he snorted as an indication to what he thought of that. "We go a long way back, but that's not important at the moment," he waved it off. "The important thing is, the Planet usually does not welcome alien residents on it, and you seem to fit the bill quite nicely, coming from the past and everything. It looks like she has decided to send a message through the Lifestream to you. Perhaps there may be hope to sending you back after all, if even the Planet is getting involved."

Although Cloud ended his explanation with a hopeful tone, Sephiroth was unassured. Throughout the one-way conversation with the Lifestream, he got the impression that he was not very well-liked for some reason. Then there was the issue of what Cloud had meant when he said he was repaying a non-existent debt to the Planet. None of these things sat very well with him, and he knew his instincts were usually right. Nevertheless, he could agree with Cloud on one thing. The best chance he had of getting back to his time most probably laid with the Planet. And if the Planet wanted to get involved, then the prospect of return certainly looked brighter than before.

"In any case," Sephiroth spoke out, looking beyond Cloud's spiky head, "we had better make our graceful exits, before we end up in tonight's stew for the Librarians."

Cloud turned to see what Sephiroth was looking at, and a scary sight greeted him. Three Librarians stood in a proper line - much like the line of a firing squad, arms crossed over their chests, glaring at the duo. It only just occurred to Cloud that they had been talking quite loudly over the past few minutes, and the Librarians were none too pleased about that. He put a hand on the back of his head. "Oops. Sorry?"

And they were promptly chased out of the Library faster than a chocobo could say 'Wark!'.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
6.oct.2007


	13. Chapter 13

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Thirteen  
Lost in a dream.

 

After the library fiasco, which amused Sephiroth to no end for some reason, the duo found themselves walking on a well-travelled path away from Kalm, two not-so-small baby chocoboes in their tow. Cloud was deep in thought about something, whereas Sephiroth busied himself with observing the surroundings. The black and white chocoboes pattered along, trying their best to keep up with the humans' longer strides. For a while, Sephiroth watched the two amusing birds stumbling over their feet when they ran a little too quicker than their legs could handle, silently entertained. Then, the comfortable silence was broken by Cloud.

"Say," Cloud was also looking at the two chocoboes. "Is it just me, or have these guys gotten a lot bigger from since we last saw them?"

Sephiroth looked at Cloud, trying to determine what the point of the question could be. It was true that they had not seen the chocoboes for a while, having booked them into a chocobo care facility at Kalm while they scoured the library for information. Although Sephiroth agreed that the chocoboes had grown, he did not see how that was related to their current trek towards the Mythril Mines. "I seem to recall you asking that question once before." He eventually said.

"Oh," was Cloud's reply. The blond frowned. "But it's true. They're much bigger than they should be at their age." He stopped walking, turned around and gave the two chocoboes a long, hard look. The chocoboes cooed and looked up at him with large, adoring eyes. This only made Cloud frown harder. He shook his head and paced along the width of the path. "It's not natural. Maybe they've been exposed to Mako and are going through some sort of genetic mutation. If that's the case, we need to get them checked as soon as possible, before they mutate into something... harmful."

Sephiroth very much doubted that the two of them could not easily take out a couple of mutated birds if push came to shove, but he respected Cloud's concern for the chocoboes. "If the Chocobo Ranch is still around," he offered, "we could drop by before we head to the Mythril Mines."

One could literally see a light bulb being turned on in Cloud's mind. "Of course!" He punched his palm lightly. "You're right! And it won't take us more than an hour to get there by foot, too!" He turned back towards the path and looked all around him for a while. Eventually he located what appeared to be the right road, and he started down it with a bounce in his step. "Okay! Let's mosey!"

Sephiroth had no proper response or reaction to that, except to follow at a safe distance, hoping nobody would associate him with the moseying blond just yet.

\--

As it turned out, Cloud was mostly right. They arrived at the Chocobo Ranch within the hour or so. Sephiroth took a brief moment to scan his eyes through the area, bemused that, unlike Kalm Town, the Chocobo Ranch had not appeared to change much. The buildings were still made of wood instead of sophisticated modern material. It was still situated on a large, green piece of flatlands that stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of the wastelands it was surrounded by. Frankly, he wondered why nobody had tried to conquer this place yet. Chocoboes may not make the best food or anything, but they ran fast and anyway, this huge piece of land would be rather attractive to the shrewd eye as a developed stop-point of sorts for travellers.

Noticing that Cloud had started wandering towards the barn, Sephiroth snapped out of his thoughts and followed. There was a young man hefting greens into some opened crates beside the entrance of the building. Cloud came up to the man and tapped him on the shoulder.

The man turned around. "Mr. Cloud!" He exclaimed. He appeared happy to see Cloud. He probably did not usually get many visitors. "How've you been doin' old man? And yer brought me sum new friends, ah see."

"Please stop calling me that," Cloud sighed. He knew practically every person born into the Choco Billy family, and they him. He introduced himself at each generation as the progeny of his previous identity, but frankly, he suspected that the Choco Billy family had already figured out it was him all along anyway and called him names like 'old man' just to make fun of him. He was glad that they made no big fuss about it, though. "Billy, are you able to help me do a quick checkup on these chocoboes? I picked them up when I was up at the Icicle Area, and I want to know if they've been affected by... toxins of any sorts."

"Sure thin', Mr. Cloud," the man nodded, tossing the greens aside to walk towards the two baby chocoboes. He picked them up with experienced hands, and the chocoboes immediately warbled in protest. "Don't worry little 'uns, Choco Billy the Thirty-Eighth'll get you back in the pink 'o health in no time!" As he said this, he walked towards the main building of the Ranch, where all the stables were located. Cloud and Sephiroth followed wordlessly.

As they entered the building proper, Choco Billy waved at some seats near the entrance. In the area beside the seats, there was what looked like a metal operating table, and Choco Billy set the two chocoboes on top of it. Cloud and Sephiroth sat down as indicated. They watched as Choco Billy proceeded to expertly run a series of tests on the flustered birds.

A clink indicated that someone had set cups before the duo on the glass table in front of them. Looking up, Cloud saw that it was Choco Billy's wife, who smiled warmly at him. "Long time no see, Mr. Cloud," she said pleasantly. "Please, have a drink."

"Thank you, Mrs. Billy," Cloud replied, equally polite. He reached out for the cup on the table, although Sephiroth made no move to do the same.

Mrs. Choco Billy then sat down on a perpendicular chair, regarding the duo with mild interest. Her voice, however, was solemn when she spoke. "The Bazookas have started to move again," she began, without any introduction whatsoever. Cloud and Sephiroth both looked at her with a start. Oblivious to their surprise, she continued, "There have been rumours about their bases being destroyed. For a while, we believed that to be true, as they had no activity and the Planet appeared to be repairing itself. However, lately they have banded together again. Just two days ago, they attacked the Mythic Caves..." she paused, looking down at her hands on her lap sadly, "...and have successfully taken over it."

There was a long period of numbed silence.

"That's not all," the lady continued. "They've captured a few more island deserted colonies off the Grasslands as well. I'm not sure why, but every time they do, it appears the Planet is weakened by something. And they - the Bazookas - they just keep growing stronger." She clasped her hands together nervously. "If this goes on, the Planet may no longer be willing to speak to even the Seers anymore. And when that happens, what will become of us humans?" She held a sob back. "Why won't the rebels just leave the Planet alone?"

"Easy there, Mrs. Billy," Cloud tried to soothe her frayed nerves, although he also sounded slightly confused. He glanced at Sephiroth briefly, who shrugged. Returning his attention to the missus, he said, "We don't know for sure what they're up to, and I'm sure the Planet is a lot tougher than we give it credit for. However..." his tone started to sound strained. "...I'm not sure why I'm receiving all this information...?"

There was a crash, which was Choco Billy dropping the apparatus he had in his hands. The chocoboes immediately warked in alarm. Cloud glanced over to see that Choco Billy was staring at him with wide-opened eyes. Looking back at Mrs. Billy, he found her also staring at him with something akin to surprise on her face. She opened her mouth, but it was her husband who managed to speak first.

"By the Planet, Mr. Cloud, are you gettin' senile or sumthin'?" Choco Billy asked, and he sounded genuinely concerned. "It's been yer job fer months, this Bazookas business, and you had us swear by the stars that we'd give you all the information we've got whenever you dropped by!"

Mrs. Billy kept nodding in agreement to her husband's words. Cloud, on the other hand, kept blinking in confusion. "It's my what to do what?" He eventually sputtered.

"Wait a good damn minute 'ere," Choco Billy walked over from the operation table and stood in front of the seated Cloud, his arms folded across his chest, frowning hard. Suddenly, however, his expression melted into one of understanding. "Ah see!" He nodded in satisfaction. "Yer sufferin' from that amnesia thing you were warnin' us you would fr'm time ta time, aren't ya?"

Cloud searched his head for any impressions of him having ever said that to the Choco Billy family. He could find none. "Billy," he said, his tone serious, "I don't quite get what's going on yet, but you're right. I have some sort of a memory lapse, and I can't remember a lot of details. But to have forgotten my job which I have apparently been doing for months - now that's something I don't know if I want to believe is possible." He paused, then sighed. "Nevertheless, it appears it is. Will you tell me more about this job, then, Billy?"

"No problem, Mr. Cloud," Choco Billy said, and sat himself on one of the chairs around the table. The two chocoboes had hopped off the operation table as well, and were now circling Cloud's feet in a frenzy. "Ah, them chocoboes are fine, by the way," Choco Billy gestured. "Couldn't spot anything dangerous or toxic 'bout 'em. Bunch o' healthy chicks if yer ask me!"

"Right," Cloud intoned. He was not sure if he wanted to tell Choco Billy about their abnormal growth spurt or not. If the expert handler said they were fine, who was he to refute that? "Now, you were saying... I was on this job for months?"

It was Mrs. Choco Billy who took over. She nodded, saying, "I will be brief, Mr. Cloud. You were hired by the Cetra Seers to help them destroy the Bazookas before the Planet activated the WEAPONs to wipe out humankind. As for anything else, I think you should probably visit the Seers themselves to find out."

Cloud leaned back in his seat and frowned at the table. Beside him, Sephiroth was still and unobtrusive, but Cloud knew the man was brimming with questions which he would throw at him when they were alone. He covered his face with his hands. Things were starting to spiral out of his control. "The Mythic Caves..." he mumbled. "The Mythic Caves... the mythic... the caves..." His head snapped up suddenly. "Of course! The Mythril Mines!"

"The Mythril Mines?" Both Choco Billys parroted, much to Sephiroth's amusement.

Cloud turned to Sephiroth, his frantic actions calling attention to himself. "The Planet was trying to tell you about the Mines. Err, they're called the Mythic Caves now - people don't do mining there anymore. Anyway, the Caves been taken over by the Bazookas, and they probably want me to do something about it."

Sephiroth found himself uncomfortable with that idea. "Why would the Planet go through me to get to you?" He was reasonably doubtful. Why /would/ the Planet?

"..." Cloud opened his mouth to say something, then clamped it shut. "You have a point," he finally said. He kept silent for a while more, before speaking out again, "But whatever the case, our plans remain unchanged. We still need to go to the Mines. The Planet obviously wants you there for something. And now that we know the Bazookas are there, we can't just let them do as they please, can we?"

"The Mines... well, the Caves now," Sephiroth aimlessly tapped the arm of the chair he was sitting on. "From what I personally know... they are not known to be... populous..." he said, casting a brief, doubtful eye at the Choco Billys. Cloud followed his glance, and caught the suggestion. Sephiroth wanted to know if it was okay to be completely open before the couple. He quickly took rein of the conversation.

"No, not before," he said, nodding to indicate that the Choco Billys were okay. "The Caves are a very popular tourist attraction now, though. I have no doubt that they are holding at least some people hostage in there." He turned to Mrs. Choco Billy. "Have they asked for any sort of ransom or anything yet?"

The lady shook her head, her face growing paler. "My word, now that you mention it, you're right. The Caves is a tourist magnet... they /must/ have taken some people hostage. But they haven't asked for anything yet..." She shook her head, distressed. "It's only a matter of time before they do, isn't it?"

Cloud was already rising to full height, adjusting his gear, a hard glint in his eye. Sephiroth stood as well. "Well, thank you for the information and hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. Billy," Cloud nodded at the couple, who acknowledged his gratitude with a wave and a smile. "I will be certain to drag the rest of the information out from the Seers. But before that, we had better go see what Bazookas are up to in the Caves." He started to head for the exit, but stopped in midstep. Lowering his head, he caught sight of the two chocoboes at his feet. "By the way, could I rent two more stables from you? I'd like to leave these two chocoboes here under your care, as I think I might be doing a lot of traipsing for the predictable future."

"No problem, old man," Choco Billy said graciously. He scooped the two chicks up, one under each arm. "I'll hold them safe 'n sound until you return."

"I would appreciate that," Cloud managed a wane smile. He reached out and ruffled the feathers of the two birds, who warbled and cooed at him in response. "Stay here and behave, okay? Maybe I'll take you guys for chocobo racing one day if you're good enough." After that short farewell, he took a step backwards and waved, amidst loud protesting warks from the baby chocoboes. "Thanks," he said to Choco Billy. "I'll see you guys around."

"'Course you will!" Choco Billy called out cheerfully after his retreating form. "You still owe us and yer not gonna be gettin' away from us until we wring every last gil out from that tattered cape of yours!"

Sephiroth was already hovering near the exit by the end of Choco Billy's friendly tirade. He stared at the couple for a moment, as if trying to assess their motives and loyalties. The Choco Billys were rooted to the spot by the sharp glance, but it was all over in a quick second. Sephiroth's entire countenance became impassive, and he bowed slightly. After that, he turned and followed Cloud out of the door.

"Well, that was strange," Choco Billy remarked. His wife gasped sharply. "What, what is it?"

"We forgot to ask Mr. Cloud for the name of his friend," the lady wrung her hands despondently. "He must have thought we were so rude!"

Choco Billy turned away from his wife to stare at the door that Cloud and Sephiroth had just walked out of. "Somehow, honey, I don't think that's what it was all about."

\--

Sephiroth eventually found Cloud somewhere quite far away from the Ranch. The blond was standing on top of a piece of grassland which had chocobo tracks all over it. In front of him stood two warbling adult chocoboes, and he was feeding them greens.

"Sometimes I wonder if you are the right species at all," Sephiroth could not help but inject humourously. Cloud glared half-heartedly at him. Instead of saying anything, however, he settled for tapping at the Chocobo Lure materia in his armour. Then, he led one of the chocoboes to Sephiroth.

"We'll be riding through the Petrified Forest until we reach the Caves. It's more practical to use wild chocoboes because then we can just set them free at the destination. I wouldn't want any of my chocoboes caught in a bloody materia shootout between the Bazookas and us," Cloud was saying, even as he hoisted himself atop his chocobo. Sephiroth followed suit. When Cloud saw that Sephiroth was balanced, he gave the bird a kick, and then they were off in a slow, manageable trot.

Sephiroth brought his chocobo parallel to Cloud's. "What is the Petrified Forest?" He asked.

"You'll see it soon enough," Cloud gave a slightly embarrassed laugh, as if remembering something awkward. "In our time, it was called the Marshlands. You know? With that big snake lurking in it and everything?"

"I seem to recall something to that effect." Sepihroth said, then paused. He looked at the stretch of wilderness before them. "I have another question. Who are these Seers that I have been hearing about since we were in the Icicle Area?" He lowered his eyes and his expression turned pensive. "From what I have heard about them, these Seers, they appear to be some organisation that is battling another organisation called the Bazookas. You mentioned that only the Seers know about the Lost City of Midgar. Does that mean they are from our time as well? The Bazookas are after the black and white materia, which they claim the Seers have given to you. Am I right to assume by all the information I have on hand that there is some kind of a power struggle going on between them?"

Cloud's mouth was in the vague shape of an 'o'. Quickly composing himself, he said, "Right... I kind of took it for granted that everybody knows who the Seers are... sorry..." He laughed sheepishly. "You're right. The Seers and Bazookas are at odds with each other. It's really none of my business who wins, but I suppose you could say I'm technically on the Seers' side."

"I should think so, since the lady in the Ranch mentioned you were hired by them," Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "However, that was not what I wanted to know. Who are these people, and why are they at odds?"

Cloud made a peculiar face at Sephiroth. "I really don't mind telling you, but why do you want to know? You're not from this timeline. It shouldn't matter to you, right?"

Sephiroth shrugged elegantly. "Professional curiosity," he said. "It is my job to do battle."

"Ah, right, SOLDIER," Cloud nodded to himself. "Anyway, it's not like it's a well-kept secret or anything. The Seers are like the Cetra - they talk to the Planet, find out what she wants, then conveys that to the humans, who, if they know what's good for them, will do as told. The Planet doesn't always tell the humans to do things that benefit them, of course, so some humans are naturally unhappy. They banded together and called themselves the Bazookas - their main goal is to blast the Seers' reputation to smithereens. They want people listen to them instead of the Seers, and they resort to taking over towns and villages to achieve that. I'm not quite sure what they hope to achieve by turning the humans against the Seers - who, in essence, represent the Planet. I have the impression they /think/ they are the ones whom the Planet is using to save mankind or something, but it's quite obvious they are not." He paused here and took a deep breath.

Sephiroth considered the information carefully. "Why is a paltry team of ragtags proving to be such a formidable force against people who apparently have the backing of the Planet?" He eventually asked. "If the Planet is really on the Seers' side, why are they seemingly helpless against this team of imposters?"

Cloud's expressions became pained. "That's the thing," he sighed. "The Seers - they weren't appointed to do battle. They're just the messengers. In an ideal world, the Planet tells the Seers what they want, the Seers tell the humans, and the humans do as told. Break the chain somewhere and the Planet becomes mad. When the Planet becomes mad, syndromes start. A drought here, a flood there. When these things happen, the humans are confused. Who is to blame? The Seers for passing false information, or the Bazookas for challenging the Planet? Compound that with the fact that the Bazookas have somehow gotten their hands on materia and can utilise it. It's really no wonder the people are confused."

The next few moments were spent in verbal silence, as Cloud's words slowly sunk in. The pattering of the chocoboes became the background music to the duo's thoughts.

As they journeyed on, however, the sky began to darken. It was as if the land had suddenly been consumed by a large, looming shadow. The chocoboes started to become restless, and Sephiroth could feel the foreboding in the air as well. Cloud, however, was unperturbed. He reined the chocobo in and continued to lead the way forward, seemingly oblivious to the sudden change in weather.

"This is suspicious," Sephiroth decided to raise his concerns, as it did not seem like Cloud had any. "A weather change so sudden can only mean abnormal things."

Cloud glanced at Sephiroth from the corner of his eyes. "No problem. It's normal for the weather to change abruptly in this region. In fact, I'd be worried if I don't see one or two strange things when going through here!" He gestured at the surroundings, which was slowly becoming darker and darker.

There were many long, sharp mounds of dry earth which stretched out towards the rumbling sky, as if desperately trying to reach it. The ground was caked with crusted, charred soil. A lonely, eerie breeze continually made its way through the gaps and openings the mounds left. Towards the west, there was a massive, odd-shaped mountain enshrouded by storm clouds.

There were no birds, no animals, not a single sound of wildlife, save the footsteps of Cloud and Sephiroth's chocoboes. Despite the consistent breeze, the heat here could suffocate the hardiest of warriors. From time to time, Sephiroth could see smoke and hear the rumbling of what sounded like war chariots, but yet he could see no such thing in range. All in all, the entire stretch of visible land painted a picture of despondency and dejection.

Sephiroth was troubled, and he meant to speak it out loud, but before he could, Cloud turned to him, smiling serenely.

"Welcome to the Petrified Forest, also known as the Mirror of Dark Memories," said Cloud, his light tone and expression belying the actual import of his words. "Watch your step, or you may find yourself lost in a dream - and not a pleasant dream, at that!"

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
12.oct.2007


	14. Chapter 14

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Fourteen  
Frozen in time.

 

"A long time ago," Cloud narrated, as he and Sephiroth sped through the Petrified Forest on chocoboes, "there was a great war. When the war neared its end, a decisive battle was fought right here, in the Marshlands," he gestured at the surroundings. "I was there," he said shortly, "and so was Vincent. We couldn't lose the battle. We just couldn't. The opponent was massive - taller than the tallest mountain in the region and stronger than all known monsters combined. If we lost, it would be the end of humanity." He glanced downwards sadly. "We had to use twenty master Contain materia to Stop the opponent with Freeze. In order to completely ensure that it never returned to taunt mankind, we Petrified it with Break." Cloud now lifted his head to glance westwards at the odd-shaped mountain. "That mountain there still houses the opponent we tried to contain."

Sephiroth turned to look at the mountain as well, the sinister feeling he had just managed to shake off since entering the Forest returning doublefold.

"After our opponent was trapped, there was still residue energy in the Contain materia. We couldn't withdraw the power so we had to release it somewhere," Cloud continued his tale, "and so we released the spell on the nearest plot of land - the Marshlands. We put up Shields and everything, but the spell was too wild, too powerful. That was how the Marshlands became the Petrified Forest overnight. The Planet no longer takes care of this plot of land, as you can see. There's not a single trace of life to be found here anymore."

Looking at Cloud, Sephiroth could not help but ask, "And why the sudden urge to recount old war stories?"

Cloud's breath hitched. "Because," he breathed in sharply, "you never know. You never know what exactly is going on when it comes to the Planet. Want to venture a guess who the opponent we had to contain was?" He looked at Sephiroth in the eye. "It was a WEAPON. The Guardian of the Planet. The Guardian versus rowdy humans who happen to have access to some materia. Don't you see an eerie parallel here? The WEAPON against humans. The Seers against the Bazookas. Both sides fight with the backing of the Planet - whether by Lifestream or by materia. Both sides fight for a cause they believe to be good for the Planet. One side clearly has the support of the Planet. Yet, no matter who wins or loses, the Planet keeps going on - her intent never clear and never explained." He sighed loudly. "I know she cares about humans," Cloud glanced at the petrified state of the Marshlands, eyes downcast, "but when I come across sites like the Petrified Forest, sometimes I wonder. I just wonder."

"You are wrong, Cloud," Sephiroth spoke up before there could even be a pause. "A war, a fight, or a minor scuffle even - it is nothing as glorified as they paint it to be. There are no winners in a war, and intent is merely a better way of saying greed." He looked away, towards the west, towards the lumbering mountain. "It is not our place as warriors to question the issues behind the battle. Whether the Seers or the Bazookas have the true support of the Planet," he tilted his head and glanced at Cloud, "let the Planet decide for herself." A wry smile graced his lips. "She is old enough to make her own decisions and bear the consequences. You cannot hold her hand forever."

After a short, stunned silence where Cloud stared openly at Sephiroth, the blond actually threw his head back and laughed out loud. He continued to laugh for a short while as the chocoboes trudged on, zipping across the Petrified Forest at breakneck speed. Eventually, he stopped, just as the chocoboes neared the boundary of the Forest. "Thanks, Sephiroth," he said with a small grin. "You're right. I've been frozen in time for too long. I think too much about the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens. But you're right. I'm in no position to judge. The Planet can do that for herself," there was a twinkle in his blue eyes, and his tone was riant.

"The story of the Petrified Forest is indeed interesting, and would serve as a good lesson should any be brave enough to ask," Sephiroth turned his head so that he was now looking on the road ahead. They had left the ominous shadow of the petrified mountain and were now coming near to a long line of architecture with ritzy lights and lavish deocrations, built into the mountains that housed the Mythril Caves. "However there are more banal matters at hand for now, and I suggest that we see to it first before we continue to pay our intellectual discussion heed."

Even as Sephiroth spoke, a spray of bullets slammed into the area directly in front of his chocobo. He reined the chocobo in and turned it in another direction, and Cloud was quick to follow. The bullets continued to rain down, hard and fast. Cloud and Sephiroth took cover behind a mound of hard rock. As soon as they had cover, they dismounted the frantic chocoboes and sent them away. As the chocoboes sped off, the duo drew their weapons and readied their materia.

"Shouldn't we at least try to talk first?" Cloud wondered out loud. Overhead, the loud roar of a Firaga seared the tip of the mound they were standing behind. "Maybe we can negotiate something."

Sephiroth frowned at him. "In case you have not noticed, these people are obviously spoiling for a fight. If they were the kind who sought for peaceful measures, I very much doubt they would have opened fire without provocation."

"Well yeah, but," Cloud put a hand to his forehead, rubbing it in frustration, "/I/ want to talk to them. There may be hostages in that place. I don't want to risk blowing up a building with innocent civilians inside!"

Sephiroth nodded his understanding. "First, of course, we need to locate their leader." He paused, the sound of flying bullets and spells filling in the silence. "And to do that, I suppose we will need to step out into the open and eliminate the firing squad first."

Cloud chuckled, bringing his sword out to indicate his readiness. "Thought you'd never ask!"

There was no need for a cue. Within the split second Cloud locked eyes with Sephiroth, they were gone from behind the mound and out into the open. A quick glance at the turrets of the buildings was enough for them to evaluate the situation. There were two groups of Bazooka troopers firing from the left and right turrets of the main entrance. The best way to take them all out was to split up, and the duo did just that. Cloud headed for the left and Sephiroth took on the right, deftly avoiding spells and bullets as they raced towards the building at alarming speeds.

A quick, powerful spell would be enough to take out the entire squad at once, but the spell would definitely harm the building, and the civilians who may be inside would then be hurt - something both Cloud and Sephiroth wanted to avoid at all costs. Therefore they had to get close range enough to pick out the fighters one by one with low level spells. It was a unanimous strategy that needed no discussion.

Cloud came within low-level spell range of his opponents first. He fired off a few quick spells which knocked a few rifle-bearers off their feet. He listened to their indignant hoots with mild amusement, parrying some spells away with his sword. There were gasps and a bit of confusion. Obviously the rank-and-file of the Bazookas had been told that only the Bazookas could use magic, and this was a new development for them.

Some of Cloud's puzzled opponents were staring at the opposite turret. Sparing a brief glance over his shoulders, he saw that Sephiroth had already more or less decimated his share of opponents. Quickly charging up a few more spells, Cloud cleared out most of the stunned looking Bazookas on the turret. The rest who had not fallen to the spells were knocked unconscious with a single slash of his sword - with the help of a long range materia.

No longer under enemy fire, Cloud breathed a sigh of relief and kept his sword. He had not expected it to go so well, but then again, none of the troopers that they were going up against seemed very powerful. Why had they bothered to occupy the Mythril Mines if they were going to give it such lax security? Cloud could not help but wonder.

Cloud turned around to address Sephiroth. Before he could say anything, however, an excruciating pain ripped through his head and set him reeling. His entire vision became green - the first sign of Mako withdrawal. The green was eventually replaced by gray, and then the world darkened. The last thing Cloud remembered hearing was the sound of the wind in his ears as the ground rushed up to meet him, and the muffled voice of somebody calling his name.

\--

"Hello, Cloud," said the voice, sweet and sad.

Cloud lifted the eyes he did not know he had downcast. He tried to feel angry, to feel excited, to feel anything at all, but he could not. All he could do was to answer the voice, "Hello, Gaia."

There was a soothing length of silence as the mood settled.

"You know, Gaia," Cloud spoke up again, still monotonously, "you don't have to go to such lengths to rip me from my consciousness every time you need to talk to me."

A ripple of unease was all the reaction Cloud got from Gaia.

For a while.

Then suddenly.

"Do you love me?" Asked the voice, sad and lonely. The voice of the child who stood at the corner of the street. "Do you love me, Cloud?"

Cloud wondered if it was a trick question, as he was quite unable to feel anything at the present moment, and Gaia made sure of that. "I don't know," he said truthfully. "What do you mean?"

"If you love me," the voice continued, unheeding of Cloud's query, "then you'll keep fighting for me, right? You'll help me destroy those people making me ill, right? If you love me, you'll forgive me, right? You'll forgive me... won't you?"

"Forgive you for what?" Cloud could not help but ask the obvious. Sometimes, Gaia conveniently forgot that not everybody had access to the collective stream of consciousness like she did.

"I knew you wouldn't like the idea," Gaia was not paying attention at all, much to Cloud's unfelt annoyance. In this immobile limbo, he had the patience of a thousand saints. He listened on. "I tried to make you understand, but you would have none of it. We need him, my child, but we need you all the more. I had to keep you from knowing. Until he finishes his mission, you have to stand by him. Do you understand, my child?"

"You're not making sense," Cloud shook his head, not thinking much about what Gaia had said. She often spoke in riddles, speaking as if Cloud had the full picture when he did not. He figured that she would tell him everything when she was ready. Right now, he had other questions he needed answers to. Struggling to gain hold of his emotions, Cloud had slight success when he found that he could frown. As he slowly regained control over himself, his memories of what had last transpired trickled back to him as well. His frown only deepened. "What are the Bazookas doing at the Mythril Mines?" He decided to be pointed. Two can play at this game.

Something stirred behind Cloud, but he knew it was pointless to look back. All he would see is pitch darkness, if his previous experiences was anything to go by. The long pause in which Gaia kept silent told Cloud that she was finally paying some sort of attention.

However.

"Do you hate him?"

That was not a question Cloud had been expecting to hear.

In the first place, who was this 'him' they had been harping about since just now?

Cloud stared long and hard at the darkness in front of him, imagining that if he stared hard enough, he would miraculously receive an answer.

"The Child of the Calamity," Gaia eventually whispered. A short pause. Then, "...he is strong, but unstable. Our messengers have brought him here, but they could not completely control him..."

"Who are you talking about?" Cloud interrupted, confused. At the back of his mind, he had the naggy feeling that he knew the answer to that. It was swiftly blotted out with sparkles of green and bright flashes of light. "Give me a straight answer! What are the Bazookas doing at the Mines, and why did you ask Sephiroth to go there?!"

Suddenly, the low murmurs of the Planet crescendoed. Cloud dropped to his knees with a strangled cry at the sudden influx of energy, his head throbbing with pain. All the pain he was experiencing in the psychic realm was sure to wreak havoc on his real physical self when he awoke later. Cursing, he managed to struggle to his feet, where he could feel the presence of Gaia waiting to speak to him.

"Cloud," the voice of Gaia pleaded, "guard the fountain of life, and the Child of the Calamity. When you reach the end of your journey, you will know everything." Although Cloud still only saw darkness, he could feel her presence slowly fading from the plane.

"Wait," he called out to her in panic. "Wait, Gaia..." He had meant to say more, but the soft, distanced voice of the Planet he next heard stopped him.

"I'm sorry, Cloud..." The voice was weary and worn. "I'm so tired..."

\--

When Cloud opened his eyes, all he could see was darkness. Disorientation set in quickly. Where was he? Why was it pitch black when it was still day? Who was that presence hovering near him? He stretched a hand out in front of him, tentatively making a few swipes. "Vincent?" He choked, realising belatedly that his voice was hoarse. As if he had just been shouting for a long time.

A warm hand settled on his forehead, and he jerked at the sudden unfamiliar touch. Soon, the hand removed itself. Cloud could hear the rustling of cloth by his side. "Your fever has gone down," the owner of the hand said, and he sounded relieved despite the indifferent tone. "Rest. You are safe for now."

Cloud searched his groggy mind to match a name to the voice. "...Sephiroth?" He eventually asked, meekly.

Sephiroth chuckled. "I see you still remember me. That is certainly most convenient, as I would loath to have to introduce myself again."

The blond tried to sit up, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back to lay prostrate. "What..." Cloud struggled, but was no match for Sephiroth's superior strength in his current weakened state. "...what happened?"

"You collapsed," Sephiroth said musingly. "I almost thought it was because your opponents hit you with something, but apparently that was not the case."

Memories slowly flooded back to Cloud, and with them, a growing headache. He put a hand to his forehead to try to rub the pain away, but jerked it aside when he suddenly remembered something. "The Mines!" He exclaimed, then tried to sit up again. Sephiroth held him at bay with slight irritation. "What about the Bazookas? And the hostages in the Mines?!"

"Lie back down and I might tell you," Sephiroth commanded, resisting the urge to knock Cloud out cold with the hilt of the Masamune, just so that he could get him back to resting.

Cloud stopped struggling. Then he nodded slightly and went back to lying down, obviously realising the benefits of such an action. "Okay. You can tell me now," he said pleasantly.

Biting back a sigh, Sephiroth removed his hand from restraining the blond and said, "The Bazookas, as you say they are, were deep inside the Mines carrying out some investigation. When we took out the guards on the turrets, we essentially eliminated all the door guards. It was not hard for me to break down the door to the building after that. In the central square, these people indeed had some civilians held hostage, but the security was lax and it was no problem eliminating the threat there as well. So you can rest assured - the civilians have been safely evacuated."

Previously tensed, Cloud now breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. "Thanks," he muttered, putting a hand at his throbbing head. A short, contemplative silence later, he spoke out again, saying, "Wait, what about those guys you said were doing some investigation deep in the Mines? What happened to them?"

Sephiroth made a 'hmm' sound. Cloud still could not see him, or anything else for that matter, but he heard the rustling of cloth again. "Those people deep inside were not exactly the warrior types. I suspect these Bazookas people are equipped with a Science department of sorts as well, much like how Shinra has one. In any case, when I went towards them, it was all they could do to keep themselves from tripping over their own feet trying to run away from me." A pause. "In retrospect, that was actually quite an amusing sight. I would have rather enjoyed it if I had not had my hands full with your antics."

Cloud had the courtesy to look chagrined. "What did I do?"

"I believe I should be the one asking that question," Sephiroth shook his head. "When you collapsed outside, you were out cold. After I took you inside, however, you started to stir. And then when I brought you near the fountain where the enemies were carrying out their investigation, you started to scream. I think it was most probable that the Bazookas fled at the sound of your voice. Once they left, however, you stopped as suddenly as you started." Rustling sounds again. "Any idea what could have caused this phenomenon?"

The blond made a face. "The Planet hates me, that's all," he sighed. Anticipating that yet another question was on Sephiroth's lips, he quickly preempted it by asking, "By the way, why is it so dark around here? I can't see a single thing."

The pause that next occurred was so stunned, it was scary. "Cloud," Sephiroth said, and his voice was strained. "This place is as brightly lit as the statue of Dio at the Goldsaucer at night." His tone was matter-of-fact.

Cloud blinked. Or at least, he thought he blinked. He could neither see nor feel the flash of eyelids covering his eyes as people usually did when they blinked, even in the dark. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes completely. "Oh, great," the blond now used both hands to cup his head. "I can't see..."

"Do you mean that literally?" Sephiroth asked, bewildered. As an experiment, he waved a hand before Cloud, then realised that Cloud's eyes were not responding at all.

"It's... nevermind," Cloud gave up trying to explain, unsure of what he could say. "To cut a very long story short, I have a very bad case of Mako withdrawal at the moment. I'll be all right in a few days. Just let me be." He sighed loudly and rubbed at his temples with his fingers.

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "If you say so," he acquiesced. "Do I accurately assume that we will be staying in the Mines until you recover your sight, then?"

This made Cloud halt in his movements. "No, we can't!" He exclaimed. Surprised at the sudden outburst, Sephiroth was unable to stop Cloud from sitting up with lightning fast speed. "We need to go to the Woodlands area right away. The Seers..." He had to pause slightly when he was suddenly hit by a dizzy spell. Shaking his head furiously, he continued. "The Seers! They know about you... Apparently they pulled you here. She didn't tell me for what, though..." Cloud frowned. "So if she brought you here, they must have a way to send you back!"

"Calm down and sort your thoughts out properly," Sephiroth suggested quietly but firmly. "The Seers were the ones who brought me here, you said?" He questioned. Cloud nodded. "This 'she' you were talking about... it refers to the Planet, I assume?" Again, Cloud nodded. "So the Planet told the Seers to bring me here, but you do not know for what, am I right?" Cloud nodded. His head was starting to resemble a chocobo bob toy, Sephiroth thought privately to himself, amused. "And you think that the Seers can send me back because it was the Planet that asked them to throw me forward in time in the first place?"

Cloud nodded one final time. Opening his mouth, he added, "Obviously they must have a reason for bringing you forward in time. And since they didn't tell me, that means they probably want to tell you themselves. Or that they have some other plan they want you to carry out that hinges upon you not knowing about it. And that must mean..." his face turned dark. "...that the Planet has something to do with my memory lapse as well."

"How did you deduce that?" Sephiroth asked, curious.

The blond looked straight ahead in front of him. Even though he technically could not see anything, his eyes were filled with something like determination and nostalgia. "Because I know you from somewhere," he whispered. "The Planet's just not letting me remember."

There was a silence in which the import of what Cloud had just said sank in. As Sephiroth attempted to sort out the information into some logical order or another, he was jolted from his train of thought by the sound of Cloud attempting to get up. He had laid Cloud on the floor next to the fountain he had found the Bazookas examining as he had not wanted to risk carrying the blond anywhere else for fear of triggering another screaming fit. And now, as Cloud wobbled dangerously on his feet, he was just one step away from falling right into the fountain. Sephiroth rose to full height quickly and grabbed Cloud's shoulder, pulling him away from the danger zone. "If you are really so opposed to the idea of resting," Sephiroth shook his head, "at least try to not make yourself any sicker by falling into a Mako pool on top of everything else, please."

Cloud stood unsteadily on his feet, dizzy and confused. He leaned against a nearby wall. "There's a Mako pool around?" He asked.

Sephiroth nodded, then realised that Cloud could not see him. "Yes," he then said out loud, "the fountain the Bazookas were examining. It is actually a Mako pool, and is one of the main attractions of the Caves, according to a tourist I asked."

Cloud turned in the direction where he could feel the pull of the Planet from. "'Guard the fountain of life', huh..." he muttered under his breath, although Sephiroth caught it as well. "I suppose the Bazookas were trying to see if they could harvest this Mako pool for materia, then?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Sephiroth shrugged. "However I have taken a look at the Mako pool, and it indeed shows symptoms of crystallisation. In a few years it might become a functional materia. There are, of course, artifical ways of speeding up the crystallisation process, but that technology is strictly a Shinra secret," he narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "You mentioned that war has taken away most written records. I suspect that the method of accelerated crystallisation would be among the records that were destroyed, so this fountain should be safe from them for a while."

Instead of flushing with relief at Sephiroth's words, however, Cloud's face grew paler and paler. "Of course... of course! Why didn't I think of that!" He pushed himself away from the wall and edged carefully towards the Mako pool. "The Bazookas... they've found a way to accelerate Mako crystallisation! That's where they're getting all their materia from!" He said in excitement. "That's why the Planet's weakening! And that's why the Bazookas took over the Mythril Mines, which has no apparent value in their quest to overthrow the Seers. It was because of the pool!" Cloud knelt down beside the fountain, placing his hands on the edge of the crafted fountain. A few more moments of silence later, his features hardened with determination. "We need to stop them from taking over this pool as well."

All things considered, Sephiroth thought that Cloud had made a rather logical deduction - one that he could agree with. That meant that in order to stop the opponents from gaining strength, thereby weakening the Planet, they had to do what they could to stop Mako from leaving the Planet's veins. "We can't destroy this place to hide the pool," Sephiroth said in reply. "But we can probably seal this area up with a spell that only an anti-spell of equal rank can break down."

Cloud turned his head in the direction of Sephiroth's voice, his eyes staring through the man eerily. "A Blizzaga?"

"No," Sephiroth shook his head. "Blizzaga will melt eventually, and that defeats the purpose of sealing the pool up in the first place."

"Hmm," Cloud inclined his head to a side. "I was thinking Break, but that only works for keeping things in, not out..."

"How many of those Exit materia do you still have?" Sephiroth suddenly asked, making Cloud straighten. "Is it enough to make a Glyph around this entire area?"

Cloud blinked. Realisation slowly dawned upon him as he figured out what Sephiroth was planning to ask him to do. "I..." he glanced around himself, annoyed that he could not see. "I have enough," he eventually said, as his hand closed around his materia pouch on his waist. "But I've never had experience setting up a Glyph that can automatically teleport someone away before. And besides," he lowered his head to the ground sheepishly. "I can't cast anything now."

Sephiroth stared. "What do you mean?"

"You've never seen any of your SOLDIERs suffer from Mako withdrawal before?" Cloud inquired, slightly surprised.

"I had assumed that you meant you had mild Mako poisoning," was Sephiroth's reply.

Cloud sighed. "It's similar to Mako poisoning - a milder version of it, if you will. When hit with withdrawal, we lose most of our enhanced abilities, including our ability to do battle and to cast, but we keep our sanity. In rare cases we lose motor abilities and some senses," he pointed to his eyes to drive the point home. "Therefore... I can't set up an Exit Glyph to protect this area. I'm sorry." He apologised earnestly.

"I see." Sephiroth folded his arms across his chest. "In short, you become human again?"

There was a pause.

"I've never really thought of it that way," Cloud began slowly, "but yes. I suppose you could say that." He then turned towards the side, frowning.

"This is truly a strange, Mako-related illness that I have never heard of," Sephiroth continued to say. "However, that aside, I am certain I can set up the Glyph if you can just provide me with the necessary information and materia. I may not be as experienced as you are when it comes to Exit, but if it behaves similarly with the rest of the materia in its group, then I should have no problems manipulating it," he stated matter-of-factly.

Cloud considered this for a quick moment. Then he nodded. "I'll recite the incantation," he said, while fumbling for his materia pouch. Finding it, he grabbed it and stretched it outwards to where he thought Sephiroth should be standing. "You just have to cast it with the incantation in mind or in speech if you prefer. There is a formation you need to put the materia in. I'll try to describe it. Let me know if anything seems unclear. And also..."

Thus, they spent the next hour or so in the task of setting up the Glyph.

After many hilarious mistakes (due to Cloud's unclear instructions) and embarrassing explosions (due to Sephiroth's misestimation of MP usage), the Glyph was more or less ready. Sephiroth picked a stone up from the ground and hurled it into the region of the Mako pool, which was surrounded by the Glyph. The stone vanished the moment it touched the boundary of the formation.

"Perfect," Sephiroth said for the benefit of Cloud, who could not see what was happening. "The Glyph works. Nothing can approach the Mako pool now."

Cloud sighed heavily in relief, putting a hand on his chest. He had been sitting to one side, narrating instructions while Sephiroth worked on the Glyph. Now that it was done, he struggled onto his feet with his sword as a crutch. "Mako pools are rare even in this time and era, so I don't think we'll need to do something like this again. However," his eyes narrowed, "we do need to go to the Seers. They owe us an explanation for this entire mess..."

"And an apology, if nothing else," Sephiroth concurred. If this whole mess was truly the work of these Seers people pulling him forward in time, then they had better hope that the Planet was still on their side by the time he got his hands on them.

"The sooner we get there, the better," Cloud said, while limping forward in a random direction. "Let's go. Oh, and... you'll have to lead..." the blond commented, sheepishly. "The geography of the Planet hasn't changed all that much. Besides, now that you're fully educated in the ways of the modern world, you can always ask a passer-by or two for directions without getting into too much trouble!" Cloud sounded entirely too chirpy for his own good.

"I was afraid you would say that," Sephiroth's tone was controlled but resigned. "However, I have no intention of testing the practicality of my knowledge on the people here any further than I absolutely need to, so, where is this place that apparently carries maps of the area that I can procure?"

Cloud's face was set in concentration for a while. Then, as if thinking of something, he turned abruptly to his right, "I think it's this--" and collided into a stone pillar.

Sephiroth put a hand to his forehead and sighed.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
24.oct.2007


	15. Chapter 15

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Fifteen  
There is more to love than only bitterness and lies.

 

Vincent and Zack stood before a towering mound that was west of the Petrified Forest. The mound looked like it was a mountain that had been sliced into half by something. Inside the ring of the half-mountain was a huge, hollow space. Loose soil kept crumbling down from the top. Thick, gloomy clouds hovered protectively around the mound's middle.

"Wow, what's this thing supposed to be?" Zack could not help but ask. He shielded his eyes with a hand and tried to peer upwards.

"This thing," Vincent calmly explained, "was supposed to be the Container of one of the Planet's WEAPON, which is like an antibody which the Planet usually only activates in times of emergencies."

"A container?" Zack raised an eyebrow. "You mean there was supposed to be something inside?"

Vincent nodded.

"Well there's not much of anything inside now," Zack frowned at the huge, gaping hole in the middle of the mound. "Looks like the WEAPON got out, or something."

"Or something," Vincent agreed. He turned away and began trekking diligently along the beaten path of the Petrified Forest. "Someone could have purposely let the WEAPON out," was his suggestion.

Zack did not immediately follow. He frowned at the hollow half mountain. Even as he stood here, far away from the actual foot of the mountain, he could tell that whatever thing had been inside the hollow area, it was gargantuan. The sense of foreboding that clung onto the mountain like a second skin was indicative that the creature inside had not gotten out to do charity work, either. Shaking his head, he quickly turned away as well, before he completely lost sight of Vincent.

"What did you mean, someone let the WEAPON out?" Zack asked Vincent, the moment he caught up.

Vincent glanced at Zack from the corner of his eyes. "Exactly what I meant," he clipped.

"But why would anyone do such a thing?" Zack tilted his head to a side, wondering. "You don't need enhanced senses to be able to tell the creature in that mountain wasn't exactly in the best of moods to begin with. Letting it out isn't a very good idea, I should think..."

"Some people just do not think beyond what will enable them to further their ambition," Vincent said, with anger in his tone.

Zack was taken aback. All the time he and Vincent journeyed together, he had hardly heard the man sounding anything but bored and occasionally exasperated. "You have an idea who did this?"

"I may, however it is not an idea I am inclined to entertain," Vincent returned his glance to the front, concentrating on his trudge.

Zack scratched his head. "Do you mind speaking in something I can understand?" He eventually said. "I don't get it. Who did this, exactly? What exactly do you mean?"

Vincent sighed softly. "You have heard me explaining about the current world situation with the Seers and Bazookas, have you not?" He muttered monotonously. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Zack nod. Continuing, he said, "I am convinced that it was either the Bazookas or the Seers who let the WEAPON out. This war has been in a stalemate for too long, and each side is grasping at anything they can to tip the scales in their balance. The Seers obviously would know about the WEAPON, being able to communicate with the Planet. The Bazookas... if they can get their hands on materia, then it is likely that they are able to detect the creature within the mountain as well. Whether they know what exactly the creature is, of course, is another matter altogether."

Vincent's words slowly sunk into Zack. "But why would the Bazookas do something like this? If the WEAPON belongs to the Planet... they wouldn't be able to control it even if they got it out."

In front of him, Vincent stopped abruptly. He looked up at the gray skies and remained silent for a while. "That is exactly the idea I was not inclined to entertain," he eventually said. "However, if the Bazookas has found a way to turn the WEAPON against the Planet, then..."

It took only a short while for Zack's eyes to widen with realisation at Vincent's words. He breathed in sharply.

"...then it looks like there's still a long way to go before this war can ever draw to a close," Vincent stated grimly, a hard glint in his sombre eyes.

\--

After the 27th time Cloud walked into a wall, Sephiroth sighed noisily and grabbed his hand. This caused Cloud to stiffen comically. "What?" He asked, confused.

"I think it will be easier for us to move around like this," Sephiroth deadpanned in earnest.

Cloud's immediate reply was to try to shake Sephiroth's hand off. "But I can follow you perfectly fine," he insisted, when Sephiroth refused to let go.

"Right," Sephiroth rolled his eyes and let the absurdity of that statement speak for itself. Without his sight and without his enhanced senses, Cloud was really nothing more than a bumbling chocobo on crack. Sephiroth continued walking, pulling the reluctant Cloud along. When he noticed that Cloud kept squirming, he paused. "Cloud," he said, in his best I-am-the-General-so-you-will-listen-to-me voice. However, Cloud was really too distracted to notice the nuance. "We need to get to Junon quickly, but you are not co-operating."

Cloud sulked. "But there's no need for us to hold hands."

"Yes there is," Sephiroth said, calmly. "You cannot see and you cannot follow me properly. I would say that this is really the best way for us to get to our destination without anymore mishaps like running into hard surfaces." Cloud frowned at Sephiroth's explanation, but refused to say anything. Neither of them appeared to want to compromise their stand on the issue. After an eerie silence, Sephiroth continued, his smirk evident in his tone, "...or if you would rather I carry you there, that is completely fine by me too."

While Cloud had previously stiffened, he now froze. After two seconds of hesitation, in which he used to make the most important decision in his life that would hopefully salvage whatever little pride he had left by now, he edged slightly further away from Sephiroth and said, in a very small voice, "...this will do."

Sephiroth's triumphant smile could be heard in his voice. "Excellent," said he.

Cloud looked at the ground, flushed with anger and embarrassment. Sephiroth laughed silently at his companion and turned his attention to the surroundings instead. He had been trying to find the map shop, and would have gotten there a long time ago had Cloud not been so maddeningly stubborn. Looking at the signs plastered across a pillar, he proceeded to follow the directions to the map shop, pulling the reluctant Cloud along.

After a few turns around the place, he realised that this tourist attraction was bigger than it appeared.

"I thought the Bazookas took everybody here hostage," Sephiroth asked with interest as he passed by a group of tourists pointing and laughing at an exhibit of a big rock from outer space flying towards the Planet.

"No, well... they took everybody in the Entrance Section, at any rate. There are other sections. The Bazookas probably cut off all the communication devices, so I'm not surprised the other sections weren't aware of the hijack." He frowned, turning his head around. "I think we're most probably in the Historical Exhibits Section now."

"Interesting," Sephiroth stated, glancing back at Cloud. Then abruptly, he stopped.

Before Cloud could ask what was wrong, he felt someone pull his hood over his head. "What? What??" He put a hand on the hood. He hated being disabled like this, but Mako withdrawal was an inconvenient, recurring malady which he could not avoid.

"Your eyes, Cloud," Sephiroth was saying. He then tugged Cloud's hand and they started walking again.

"My eyes?" Cloud repeated, feeling stupid.

"They are shining."

Cloud wondered what was so special about that. "So are yours," he retorted, still puzzled.

"No, Cloud, I meant that in its most extreme implication. Your eyes are flashing. Almost like the sun. Quite a head-turning sight, but I think we could do without the extra attention."

Cloud's eyes widened. "They're flashing? Already?" He gasped.

Sephiroth raised an elegant eyebrow. "You were expecting them to?"

The dismayed Cloud quickly pulled his hood closer to his head. "Yes, it's how the withdrawal heals naturally," he explained, his voice small. "The Mako that has withdrawn into the body will break out again to try to reabsorb itself into the system. You know how SOLDIERs usually have flashing eyes after their first Mako injections? The healing process mimics that to an extent. Once the Mako stabalises, the glow in the eyes also mellows. Until then..."

"You will have flashing eyes, major migraines, sudden flashbacks with and dangerous mood swings with occasional outbursts of superhuman strength?" Sephiroth recited, as if off a textbook.

Cloud smiled, albeit sheepishly. "Kinda like your SOLDIERs?"

"Exactly like my new SOLDIERs," Sephiroth concurred.

"I wouldn't know, I've never been a SOLDIER before," Cloud looked wistful. "I wasn't expecting the symptoms of healing to show up for a few more days, as they usually do. And usually I have Vincent..." he lowered his head to the ground, his hood hiding his expression from sight. Abruptly, he lifted his head up again, looking in Sephiroth's direction. "You know how to deal with the symptoms, right? You're the General of SOLDIER, right? You should've dealt with things like this before?"

"More than I like," Sephiroth said, his tone dark. "Once, Shinra made the inconceivable mistake of shipping a batch of SOLDIER Thirds who had just gotten their shots to me during the Wutai War. I will let your imagination fill in the blanks for what happened after that. Needless to say, it was not pretty - for Wutai or for us. However, I can confidently state in reply to your question that yes, I am fully capable of dealing with berserk, uncontrollable SOLDIERs who are adjusting to the Mako in their system. Rest assured."

Something in Sephiroth's tone made Cloud wary. "...how exactly do you deal with them?"

Sephiroth smirked. "Most probably not the same way Vincent would."

Cloud gulped. "How, then?"

Sephiroth stopped for a moment, and Cloud could feel him staring. "Don't worry, Cloud," Sephiroth was saying, mysteriously, "because you won't be conscious to know it." He actually laughed out loud when Cloud became rooted to the ground there and then. "I was kidding." He added finally, restarting his trek.

"..." Cloud followed but remained silent. For a while. "...will my limbs still be intact after your method of suppression...?"

"I don't know, Cloud. That depends on which tree of the forest I tie you to, and what monsters lurk around that area."

"..."

"..."

"...that wasn't a joke. ...was it?"

Sephiroth just laughed. "We have arrived at the map shop," he announced, leading the way into a small, cozy room labelled as the map shop.

In the quaint little shop, what greeted them upon first stepping in was the wall hanging of a large world map. Sephiroth stepped closer, taking his time to survey the map. He was pleased to note that the main continents had not changed by much. Some areas had new names, some did not. He quietly filed all the information away, bemoaning the fact that he had neglected to examine some atlases when they were camping at the Great Kalm Library. Once he had more or less remembered the different names of places in the current world, he turned towards the counter, where a crinkled old man sat, carefully scrutinising the tiny words on a crumpled periodical.

"Excuse me," Sephiroth said, and the old man glanced up at him. "I need a travel guide to the Atar Axis Interchange," he smoothly pronounced the modern name of Junon Harbour.

"Hold up a sec," the old man said in a gruff voice which spoke of underuse. He disappeared under the counter, and there proceeded to be the sound of shelves being rummaged. A small cloud of dust slowly floated upwards. "Sorry, no travel guides. How about an old, traditional map instead?" The voice of the old man could be heard.

Sephiroth remembered from his readings at the library that travel guides were modern, interactive maps. And that meant they talked or something. He was actually quite relieved that he was not going to have to use a talking map to go to Junon. With the way things were going, he would not be surprised if he found himself stuck with a map with Zack's personality. "How old is the map? Is it still relevant?" He eventually queried, after pushing all his inner thinkings aside.

"Yeah, don't worry, you won't get lost." The man behind the counter answered curtly. He rummaged the shelves a bit more. A short while later, he reappeared, coughing and fanning the air before him with a hand. He slapped a folded up copy of what appeared to be the replica map to Junon. "That'll be 500 gil," he announced without fanfare.

Sephiroth turned slightly backwards. "500 gil," he repeated.

"Huh?" Cloud was initially confused. Then his face lit up with realisation. "Oh!" He blurted. He was the only one who had modern currency between the two of them. Quickly feeling around his waist with his free hand, he eventually found the money pouch. "Here," he gave it to Sephiroth. "And keep it for now." He said, when Sephiroth took the pouch from him. "For convenience sake," Cloud added.

Nodding, Sephiroth returned his attention to the old man, who was staring at the two of them with a deeply wrinkled frown. Ignoring the scrutiny, Sephiroth counted out the exact change and spread it on the counter. "Thank you for your help," he politely said. He turned away and tugged the clumsy Cloud along. Just as he was about to walk out of the shop, however, the old man stopped him.

"You know, young lad," the man shook his head, "I don't know which part of the Planet you're from, but here in this area we usually don't let our ladies pay the bill for us, ya know? Might want to remember that before you go shopping the next time. Think about the ramifications, my boy, the ramifications!"

A hush settled over the shop for exactly two grave seconds.

"I will keep your words of wisdom in mind," Sephiroth then replied, with a face-splitting smile on his face. "And I'm sure my lady appreciates your concern as well," his smile slowly stretched into a grin.

Cloud kicked Sephiroth. Hard.

\--

"You know, Cloud," Sephiroth declared, after exiting the shop and examining the map, "I do believe you drew this map."

Cloud's expression could not be seen under the shadows of his hood, but Sephiroth was quite sure he was goggling. "Ah?" Cloud managed, at last.

"Unless you know of another adventurer who goes by the name of Ipsen?"

The 'ah' on Cloud's lips turned into an 'oh'. "I did draw maps before, a long time ago... but only for the Underground Labyrinth. I've never..." He stopped abruptly. "That map!" He exclaimed, but quickly lowered his voice. "...is there anybody around us?"

Sephiroth took a quick glance around. The map shop was in a rather desolated corner of the Shops Section. There were people milling around the entrances of the other shops, but they were out of earshot. "None that can hear us," he informed.

Cloud nodded. "Cast a Fire spell on the map," he said, quietly. Taking the pause which next occurred to be a doubt about his instructions, he explained, "It's a puzzle map. When you cast Fire on it, the real map will surface. It's the map of the Underground Labyrinth, which is a underground maze-like structure that spans this entire continent. A long time ago, someone built it during the war to facilitate troop movements in secrecy. After the war, it fell into misuse and was touted as a bane due to its initial purpose. Nobody actually knows it exists nowadays, but if I remember correctly..." he frowned. "...the underground maze should be the fastest and most concealed route we have from here to Junon."

Sephiroth was looking at the map which he had set on fire halfway through Cloud's explanation. Instead of fire, however, it was burning slowly with a faint gleam of white light. The light disappeared, and Sephiroth found himself looking at a detailed map of the labyrinth Cloud had mentioned. He was impressed.

"After the war, Vincent and I made copies of the maps, disguised them and sold them to various places around the Planet so that we would have access to them wherever we are and they could remain a secret to the people," Cloud continued his account. "But it's been so long that I barely remember where we sold the maps already..." he sounded sheepish. "I don't even remember where the various entrances of the Labyrinth are anymore."

"Apparently, your younger self has considered that when he came up with the map," Sephiroth said, his eyes still examining the parchment. "Does this sentence ring any bells? 'In the three-way beam balance of the Mines, there is more to love than only bitterness and lies'...?"

Cloud thought about it for a while. "Before the Mines became the Caves, we rigged one of the stones in its bowels to respond to a secret sequence of actions. We marked the stone with a well-concealed relief of a three-way beam balance. However, I'm not sure where the original location is anymore, after the Caves were built over the original Mines. I only know it should be somewhere at the bottom levels. But they may have already filled that area in, so..."

"We ARE at the bottommost level of the Caves," Sephiroth interrupted. He was looking at the darkened dead-end that was a little further down from the map shop they had just walked out from. "...and there is a three-way beam balance relief on this stone here."

"Isn't that such a convenient development," Cloud intoned with disbelief. "Can you describe to me what the relief looks like?"

Narrowing his enhanced eyes, Sephiroth began his narrative, "There are three scales attached to the centre rod. Each scale has three round-shaped depressions. Each scale is labelled with something... 'love', 'bitterness' and 'lies', to be precise."

"I don't believe this," Cloud was astonished. "You've really found the stone we rigged."

"You're welcomed," Sephiroth shrugged. "Now, how do we get this thing to respond?"

At that, Cloud started to dig around for his materia pouch again. "It's quite easy, actually. We need nine materia of the same element. Let's say, Fire." He magically brandished the necessary materia. "According to the puzzle, 'love' has 'more' than 'bitterness' and 'lies', so Firaga goes into the scale labelled 'love'..." he put the three Firaga materia into Sephiroth's outstretched hand. Sephiroth, in turn, placed them in the indicated spots. "...whereas the rest of the materia, you can slot them anywhere you want." He dumped the rest of the six materia into Sephiroth's hand.

"Interesting," Sephiroth looked at the materia for a short while, then turned to the wall to place them in their respective slots. "So normal people who do not have materia would never be able to unlock this door. Even if they do manage to find nine materia of the same element, they may not even understand what the puzzle means."

The last materia clicked into place. A soft, low hum could be heard from the stone, but otherwise, nothing remarkable happened.

"Did you hear a hum?" Cloud asked, expectantly.

"Yes," Sephiroth replied, remembering again that Cloud was without his enhanced senses for a time.

"Okay, now you have to take the materia out in the reverse order you put them in." He paused. "Oh... I forgot to tell you about that. I hope you still remember."

Sephiroth resisted rolling his eyes, as he removed the materia in the reverse order with no difficulties whatsoever. Another low hum sounded when all the materia were removed from their slots. Sephiroth turned to look at Cloud, waiting.

"Done?" Cloud asked after a short pause. "We now have thirty seconds to walk through the stone before it autolocks itself. But we need to do it when nobody's looking."

"Obviously," Sephiroth glanced over his shoulder at a group of tourists chattering away at the entrance of a nearby shop. There were also other people lingering around. None of them looked like they would be leaving anytime soon. Sighing, he activated a materia on his armour, casting a low-level mass Confu on all the people who were within sight, so that they would not bother to notice what was happening at the dark dead-end down the corner. As soon as he was done, he stepped towards the unlocked stone, pulling Cloud along unceremoniously.

"Whoa," Cloud managed to utter, while he was being dragged through the currently immaterial stone. He gripped Sephiroth's hand harder for balance. Finding which, he straightened himself and felt for a wall with his free hand. "...are we in?"

Sephiroth was examining their new surroundings. They were in a narrow, cramped tunnel. The air was still. Musty. The walls were jagged and coated over with a light sheen of mysterious glow. The builder had obviously not bothered about the aesthetics of this place, choosing to make it useful before everything else. Sephiroth noticed a palm sized depression on the right side of the tunnel entrance. He glanced at the map he had in his hands. "Yes, I do see a tunnel," he said at length, "but before we make our way through it, do you know anything about this palm sized depression on the wall to the right side?"

"Oh, that," Cloud turned his head towards the right, "is the lighting system that will work if either Vincent or I press our palm on it."

"Then press it."

"Umm... what do think I am, a walking humanoid battery?" Cloud frowned. "Obviously it only works when I am able to infuse some MP into the system. I don't have MP now, so..."

Sephiroth then walked closer to the depression. He put his palm on the wall cavity and tried to infuse some of his MP into the system, as Cloud had been saying. Nothing happened.

"It only reacts to certain people's magic - mine and Vincent's specifically," Cloud added. "...and the builder of the tunnel, but he's been dead for a long time."

Sephiroth stepped back wordlessly. It looked like he would have to depend on his enhanced senses for night vision. He glanced ahead, willing his eyes to see as further down the path as they were able. Lowering his eyes, he gave the map one final look-over, then kept it. "Are you ready?" He asked.

Cloud blinked at the question. "I..." he was about to answer.

When he suddenly realised that he was alone.

He looked down at his outstretched hand, that was grasping at nothing, flexing it and watching it being flexed. He was fascinated and disturbed at the same time. Something was wrong. He was not supposed to be able to see, was he? Quickly looking up, he confirmed his suspicions. He could see ahead of him. He was standing by himself in the Underground Labyrinth.

A soft breeze blew towards him from the path ahead. The air reeked with the metallic smell of blood.

Cloud could not help but be irresistably drawn towards the source of the smell.

When he took a step forward, the background of the narrow Labyrinth shimmered away, like a disturbed water surface. When the ripples settled, Cloud found himself standing in a clearing. Bright light shone from overhead. He saw that there was a fallen man propped against a distant wall. The man was alive, but barely. Cloud walked forward slowly, narrowing his eyes. He knew this man. This was the man who built the Underground Labyrinth. They were friends, a long time ago. Now, Cloud could not even remember his name.

Cloud stopped moving forward when he could hear the rasping gasps of the man. He stood at a distance, reliving with confusion the final moments of his erstwhile friend's life.

"This Labyrinth," the man was saying, in between tired coughs, "it reminds me of you, Ipsen. Sturdy, timeless, clever, always hidden..." He smiled. "...and always lost."

He lifted his face to look Cloud in the eye.

"When was the last time you asked yourself what you're fighting for?"

The man and the environment vanished, as suddenly as they had appeared. Cloud turned his head in all directions, realising he could see nothing but darkness and himself. He looked down at his hands, the hands which carried out his purpose.

But what purpose? What was he fighting for? Vincent was his only friend. He knew a few people every now and then, but they would leave one day, and he had neutral feelings for the Planet at best. Why did he keep going? What was the point?

"Cloud!" A strong voice jolted him out of the darkness of his flashback and back into the darkness of the present. He frowned, looking down at where he thought his hands were, disappointed that he could not see them anymore. Ahead, he could hear the sound of boots crunching gravel. "What is it?" The voice that was Sephiroth's asked.

"..." Cloud put a hand on his forehead, realising belatedly that he was having a headache. "Flashbacks."

Sephiroth sighed. "Now is not the best time for the symptoms to be starting."

Cloud did not respond to Sephiroth's comment. He was as if deep in thought, with his head down. "You're the General..." The topic change was sudden and unwarranted - whispered quietly but fiercely. "...the best fighter in the army, but... what's your reason? Why do you fight?"

Sephiroth took a moment to decide that Cloud was not asking a rhetorical question. "I do not consider myself an honourable man by any count, but even a man such as I have ideals, as selfish as they may seem," he eventually said, with a slight upward tilt of his lips. "I fight for myself. I fight to be stronger. I fight because it is the only thing I have to verify my existence." A pause. "I fight for those who are mine."

"Those who are yours?" Cloud repeated, puzzled. Before he could bring up anymore questions, he felt a hand on the top of his head.

Sephiroth calmly ruffled the blond spikes, a wane smile on his face. "Ever since I met you, I have seen nothing but sadness and confusion in your eyes. Is this what you have been so lost about all this time? You can't always be a hero, despite what the stories say. You can't always save the Planet, but you can save a few people when you happen to be in the right place at the right time. Whether you know them or not should not matter. What matters is that you know that you have tried your best - and don't let anything else convince you otherwise." He gave Cloud one final pat on the head before turning back to the tunnel.

Cloud did not know why he was so touched. Those were simple words that he knew by heart and recited by rote. How did he grow so jaded that those ideals no longer shone in his heart? When did life get so complicated that the simple things never mattered anymore? "I fight because I want to protect people..." he whispered. "...as long as there are people, I'll always fight to protect them."

"Good answer, that," Sephiroth remarked with amusement. "A little too high-minded for me, but one man's meat is another man's poison."

The blond could not stop the chuckle from escaping his lips. It was as if a darkened part of his heart had finally received some much needed light. Something welled up from within. It was a alarmingly familiar feeling. He started when he realised he knew what it was. Sephiroth was about to move further into the tunnel, but Cloud held him back. "Wait," said Cloud, "can you guide me to where the palm-sized depression on the wall is?"

Sephiroth did not bother to answer, merely bringing Cloud nearer to the wall as requested. Cloud groped around until he found the depression. He put his hand on the area.

The entire tunnel then burst into light.

The light shone forth from tiny, translucent orbs that were tucked neatly into strategical positions along the glowing walls to provide ample lighting in between. Sephiroth had to blink a couple of times to readjust his eyes back to brightness. He then turned to look at Cloud, who looked back at him - as much as a blind man could look back - expectantly. "Well? Did it work?"

"..." Sephiroth actually had to pause to rearrange his thoughts. "Absolutely." Another pause. "I take it as that flashback helped you regain your MP somehow?"

"That's the only feasible explanation," Cloud agreed, "although, don't ask me about the technicalities. The Planet only knows what the trigger to recovery for Mako withdrawal is."

"In any case," Sephiroth now began to walk, more confident than ever about the path from here to Junon, "this certainly makes things easier. We should hurry. We have an airship to catch."

Slowly, they made their way further into the tunnel, the sound of their walking reverberating through the narrow, ancient pathway, until they were nothing more than distant echoes.

The light on the orbs flickered out the moment the echoes could be heard no longer.

\--

Up above on ground zero, Vincent and Zack were dealing with an entirely different set of problems themselves.

"Hey, you know, that thing feels really familiar," Zack was saying, even as he gripped the handle of his sword and swung it forward.

Vincent brought his rifle into a ready position, bending low. "Yes, well, you've seen what's left of its home just now when we were on the way here, so..."

The huge, lumbering creature that was blocking their way let out a blood-curdling howl.

"So umm... how do you suppose we could convince Mr. WEAPON over here to let us pass through?" Zack slowly positioned his sword so that the sharp tip pointed towards the large thing in front.

"Maybe we could start by trying to make friends."

"How do you make friends with something so... pissed?"

"Try Firaga. Greatest ice-breaker in the world."

"...Seriously?"

As if on cue, the WEAPON Firaga'ed the two of them.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
6.dec.2007


	16. Chapter 16

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Sojourners  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Chapter Sixteen  
What are the stories hidden behind your smile?

 

The Firaga the WEAPON had tossed at the duo forced them to jump apart from each other. The WEAPON hesitated for a moment, possibly considering which prey it should target first. Then it turned and ploughed its way through the dry land in Zack's direction. The SOLDIER eeped under his breath, rolling out of the way as the monstrosity stomped a gigantic foot on the area he had been running around in. He rolled until he regained his balance and glanced up at the WEAPON, who glanced right back. He sighed. Why did the monsters love picking on him?

Another gigantic foot came his way, and this time he swung his sword and met the thing head-on. It was a rather amusing sight, Vincent thought to himself, to see a man holding back an attack from a gargantuan thing that was a thousand times bigger than he. Nevertheless, he let the SOLDIER continue distracting the WEAPON while he scaled the heights of a nearby hill that would, when he stood at its peak, bring him at level with the head of the WEAPON.

Where the core of the WEAPON was situated.

Zack, for all his enhanced strength and abilities, was not able to completely parry the WEAPON's kick. After a while of holding his sword against what looked like the WEAPON's toe, he found himself being flung backwards, into a vertical mound of dry soil. He flipped around in mid-air and landed feet-first against the drop, grinning as adrenaline rushed through every vein in his body. He missed the excitement of battle, not having been able to do much with his sword since his romp forward in time. Hopping off the mound and readying his sword again, he waited for the WEAPON's next move.

He did not have to wait long, for the WEAPON unleashed another torrent of Firaga at him. Although he was never very good at handling spells, his SOLDIER pride would never allow him to be hit by the same attack twice. A materia in his sword glowed, and he conjured up a large chunk of ice in the direct trajectory of the Firaga spell, disrupting its route and ensuring that not a single flicker of flame even singed him. The ice eventually melted, almost at the same time the Firaga sputtered to a stop. Taking advantage of the timing, Zack leapt upwards and struck the WEAPON squarely in its chest.

The WEAPON howled once, and actually staggered backwards. It was already too weak from its many years of imprisonment.

As Zack held his sword and lowered himself into yet another offensive stance, he noticed that Vincent had somehow gotten himself onto the top of a nearby hill and was staring calculatively at the head of the WEAPON. Following his glance, Zack saw that there was a jewel-like core situated in the WEAPON's head, glowing and pulsating with a strange sort of green energy. From where he stood, it would be impossible to even touch the core with his sword. Vincent, however, obviously had a better chance at that.

Once that line of thought was settled, Zack smiled knowingly to himself. It was always this way even when he worked with Sephiroth. He would be the loud distraction, while the General would sneak up from behind and bring down the enemy without them ever knowing what had hit them. He was glad, though, that Vincent operated the same way Sephiroth did.

It made things so much easier.

Running at top speed, he circled the WEAPON and managed to get to its side. Being huge meant that it had considerable inertia, and Zack could use that to his advantage. Before the WEAPON could turn around to fully face him, he gathered up all his energy into his Hattou Issen limit break. It was the flashiest limit break in his arsenal, as well as one of the longest. It would not be enough to bring down the huge WEAPON, no doubt, but every little bit counted. His purpose in this fight was not to bring down the enemy, anyway.

Light flared from beneath him, and he activated the limit break, hearing the mocking voice of Sephiroth telling him to get his act together, and subconsciously telling the mocking voice to shut up.

In the next moment, Zack became nothing more than a blur of action. Eight precise slashes to the vital spots of the WEAPON later, he jumped backwards to assess the damage. He had not expected it to work so well, for the WEAPON howled pitiably, then lost its balance and fell onto its back against the hill that Vincent had scaled.

A red cape leapt away from the hill the moment the WEAPON crashed into it, landing atop the forehead of the WEAPON, where the core was located. Vincent held his gun out and fired all the shots in the barrel into the core at point blank range, his eyes never even blinking once from the sound or the impact. The WEAPON screamed with a bloodcurdling howl, digging itself deeper into the hill, trying to back away from the pain but having nowhere to go. Vincent leapt up and away from the collapsing creature and mountain, landing a slight distance away from the observing Zack, who was still in position to strike or defend should the WEAPON have any aces up its sleeve.

There did not appear to be such a need, for the WEAPON abruptly stopped shrieking and moving. Its head tilted slightly, and its entire body went slack. Sliding away from the half-crushed mountain, it crashed to the ground with tremendous impact.

The two men who had just faced the WEAPON waited for the cloud to clear.

"That was easy," Zack said, almost in a snort.

"The WEAPON wasn't in top form," Vincent felt it necessary to explain. A gust of wind swept past the land, fanning the dust away with one quick blow. The WEAPON laid at the foot of the mountain, unmoving. "Years of inactivity... and the fact that the Planet - the source of its energy, is ill beyond compare. This really isn't anything to be surprised at," he holstered his gun and walked cautiously towards the WEAPON.

Zack kept his sword as well, putting his hands behind his back as he observed Vincent going about his postmortem. He walked closer to the fallen WEAPON, then suddenly remembered something. "If WEAPONs are supposed to be the Planet's antibodies..." he wondered out loud, "...does that mean they usually attack those the Planet deems as enemies?"

Vincent was staring at one of the WEAPON's gigantic toes. He poked it with his claw.

"And that would mean..." Zack turned to stare at the sky and continued, when it seemed apparent Vincent would not be replying, "...the Planet sees us... as enemies?"

This time, although Vincent was still not saying anything, he ground to a halt. After a brief period of uncomfortable silence with the whistling wind in the background, he turned around slightly to afford Zack a look from the corner of his eyes. "Or," he said, gravely, "it could mean that the Bazookas has found a way to control the WEAPONs."

Zack kept looking at Vincent, trying to decide which of the two options they had been discussing about were the lesser of two evils. As he stared, however, he noticed movement coming from behind Vincent. His eyes widened, and he only managed to stretch a hand out with a strangled cry of "Look out!!" before the WEAPON's huge hand slammed down on the area that Vincent had been standing in.

Cursing under his breath, Zack drew his sword again, his mind trying to find a way to mind the WEAPON while looking out for where Vincent could be. With amazing reflexes for a creature its size, the WEAPON lifted itself back onto its feet, throwing its head back and issuing forth a high-pitched, knell-like roar.

Zack did not bother waiting for it to finish shrieking. He dashed forward like a flash of dark lightning and made a thrust with his sword, hoping to at least puncture the WEAPON. What he had not expected was to get rebounded back with a dramatic clanging sound. He bounced twice on the ground, before managing to get his balance back. Even with the help of stabbing his sword into the ground to stop the momentum, he still slid quite a distance away from the WEAPON. He glanced up at the huge creature, visible in the distance despite the cloud of dust and sand. Pulling his sword out of the ground, he stepped forward and stood in his fighting stance again.

The WEAPON had not been idling after it flung Zack away, either. It was concentrating on a huge ball of energy at the tip of its mouth. Even from where he stood, Zack could see the ball of energy growing bigger and bigger with each passing second. With a quick glance around himself, Zack knew he had nowhere to run or hide. Silently conjuring up a Shield around himself, he prepared to take the attack head-on.

And then with no fanfare whatsoever, the WEAPON unleashed the huge ball of energy directly at Zack.

The huge line of energy headed his way was so bright, Zack had to squint to assess it properly, even with his enhanced vision. He was quite sure he could cut a path through by holding his sword upright, but the question was, could his Shield last the entire length of the attack? Figuring he just had to do it, he lifted his sword up.

Then a black shadow flitted in front of him, hovering in mid-air with two bat-like wings spread wide open as if in protection.

The attack hit.

The energy was shredded into ribbons the moment it rammed into the shadowy figure, spreading out in all directions away from the point of contact. Zack had to slice away a few strands of energy that managed to blast their way through the formidable barrier the figure had set up, but that was that. He could literally feel the stinging power behind the attack, and briefly wondered what would have become of him if his Shield did run out while he was taking the attack head-on. For now, he could only watch, impressed and amazed, as the bat-like creature hovering in front of him reduce every last bit of energy in the WEAPON's attack into nothing.

As suddenly as the attack came, it stopped.

Smoke billowed, seemingly from the creature hovering in mid-air, coupled with an awful, sizzling sound. The creature flapped its wings once, and before Zack could question it, it sped towards the WEAPON that was recovering from throwing out the massive attack just now. Zack could see that the creature was aiming for the WEAPON's core on its forehead, which Vincent had previously pointed out. Although slightly worried about Vincent, he knew that now was not the time to go searching for the man, who was more than capable of taking care of himself. He followed the creature, charging towards the WEAPON and swinging his blade in order to damage it. Whatever the creature was - Zack was banking on a summon - it was apparently on his side, and that was all the SOLDIER needed to know for now.

Although he was not much of a materia user by nature, he knew the situation demanded for it. He switched out some of his restorative materia from his sword and inserted the Flare materia. Although the dark creature was having no problems blocking the WEAPON's clumsy punches, it was also unable to get near enough to the core to fire anything at it. If Zack could provide a small distraction, then the creature could go in for the kill. Still running, Zack swung his sword above his head in circles. He grinned and charged the Flare spell. "Nice knowing you, WEAPON!" He shouted, then swung his huge blade in an arc before him, unleashing the pockets of bright light he had been holding back with the Flare materia.

The lights slowly travelled towards the WEAPON, and then before the WEAPON could swat them all away, they burst into pure, piercing whiteness right before the WEAPON's eyes. The WEAPON howled in pain and wavered, unable to keep its balance with its eyes effectively taken out temporarily. 

Zack could see, barely, the creature cocking something like a long rifle in its hand, pointing the gun at the WEAPON. It pulled the trigger, and a stream of dark energy jetted forward with deadly accuracy, hitting the WEAPON's glowing core and rendering it lifeless. The WEAPON gave another screech, and the eerie sound rumbled like low thunder across the entire plateau.

From beneath the dry land it was standing on, tendrils of green started to gush out, lapping lightly at the WEAPON. Zack saw that the WEAPON was absorbing the energy, and power slowly started returning to the core. He was close enough to do a critical attack now, and he decided to do just that. Holding his sword back by the very extreme end of the hilt, he swung in a hard. "Oh no you don't!" Was his declaration, the same time the wide arc of shimmering energy burst forth from his blade and rushed towards the WEAPON.

The energy arc cleaved the already diminished creature into half, surprising even Zack himself. This time, there were no more woeful cries of pain or screeches of revenge. The top half of the WEAPON slid off the bottom half, landing with a crash on the ground and shaking the area around with the tremours of a minor earthquake.

The Lifestream weaved around the feet of the eliminated WEAPON for a while more, as if beckoning it. Slowly, it subsided back into the earth. And as if on cue, the WEAPON dissipated into green energy as well, with spatters of black dropping to the ground. The green energy followed the Lifestream back to the Planet, and the black energy pooled together at the feet of the mountain, bubbling ominously.

Zack quickly walked forward to investigate the pool of dark power, and to eliminate it by any means if necessary. Before he could reach it, however, the creature from just now landed before the pool. Its wings spread out, wide, then curled inwards. Zack watched in amazement as slowly, the creature shimmered and changed shape, form and colour.

Before he knew it, he found himself staring at the back of the billowing red cape of Vincent.

Vincent was holding onto the long rifle that Zack had seen the bat-like thing just now use. His right hand - the hand holding the gun - remained scaley and dark. He lifted the gun until the barrel faced the pool of bubbling black. Gradually, the pool stopped frothing and calmed down. Then suddenly, they hurtled towards Vincent's gun, as if being sucked by an invisible vacuum. Once they touched the gun, they vanished from sight altogether. A little while, and there was no trace of the black substance anymore.

Apparently satisfied, Vincent's hand slowly morphed back into a human hand, and the long, deadly looking rifle shifted into the ornamented gun that Vincent had always been carrying with him.

The man turned to face the SOLDIER fully.

"That was you?" Zack eventually found it in himself to say.

"Unfortunately." Vincent agreed with a shrug. He kept his gun and continued, simply, "Thank you for providing all the necessary distractions. Weak as the WEAPON already was, it would have taken a rather long period of time to defeat it by merely hitting its non-vital parts, even with the added effect of contaminated Lifestream."

"Now you're not making sense," Zack shook his head. "So what are you, a shape-shifter? And you can fire... contaminated Lifestream?"

Vincent was already staring at the road ahead of them. "That is another story for another time," he dismissed Zack's suspicions easily. "We need to hurry." He started to walk.

Zack threw his hands into the air. He then followed Vincent's lead, resignation evident in his posture. "Fine then, I won't ask about you, per se. What about the WEAPON? Did you see what happened before we pulverized it? The /Lifestream/ came up and tried to give it more power! Do you know what that means?!"

Vincent merely glanced at Zack from the corner of his eyes. "It's pretty obvious that the Planet is trying to stop us from getting somewhere."

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious all right," Zack fumed. "But why is it doing that? Doesn't it need Sephiroth and my help to put down some rebels or something? What good will come out of hindering us from regrouping? I don't get it!" He run a hand through his hair in frustration.

"You must think of it from the Planet's point of view," Vincent drawled slowly, his neutral voice ethereally smooth over the grating sound of boots crunching dry sand. "The Planet needs to defeat these so-called rebels, that is true, and it has summoned you and your friend from the past in order to facilitate that. However, do not for one moment assume that you are central to the Planet in its fight for survival. There are times when one may need to withhold the reinforcements to prevent them from breaking the momentum of those at the frontline. Perhaps now is such a time, and the Planet has merely chosen to pursue the best course of action in proper response."

There was a brief period of silence, as the import of Vincent's words slowly started to sink in.

Still staring at Vincent, Zack frowned. "So the Planet wants to keep us away from Sephiroth..."

"For now."

"...for now... because the Planet thinks it'll work out better that way?" The SOLDIER paused and made a full turn on the spot, then resumed walking. "I have no idea how that's gonna help. I wish I could understand what the Planet really wants. The little brat just can't seem to make up its mind!"

Vincent merely grunted something akin to agreement. It did not appear he would be saying anything else, but he stopped walking, holding a hand out to stop Zack as well.

Two steps ahead was a cliff with a sheer drop. Rumbling could be heard from the deep crevasse that separated the land into two for as far as the eye could see. Zack goggled at the depth and width of the canyon, for he had never seen anything quite like it before.

"During one of the wars, technology was so advanced they could cut open entire towns with the mere press of a button," Vincent lowered his hand and explained, his voice tinged with sadness and regret. "There used to be a thriving city where we now stand. One night and one bright flash of light later..." He gestured towards the dejected-looking canyon before their eyes, ending his narration with that little movement.

Zack stared at the abyss for a while more, then turned his now downcast eyes away. "It's at times like these," he said, his voice subdued, "that I think I understand why the Planet doesn't care about us anymore."

In contrast, Vincent lifted his head towards the sky, where the sun hung high, warm and friendly. "She still smiles at us sometimes," he said, cryptically. "But I have to wonder... what are the stories hidden behind your smile?"

\--

Deep beneath the ravine, there was a slight rumbling around a small area on the face of the slope. Slowly, the area, which was about a square with the length of the height of two men, opened up to reveal deep darkness. A path extended itself about a few metres ahead, gradually slowing down, crackling as if in struggle. Finally, it sputtered and came to a complete stop, halfway through a process of self-construction.

Cloud sighed, from where he was standing in the darkness. He removed his hand from the panel on the wall. "I guess this thing is too old to really work properly anymore."

"How far was it supposed to stretch?" Sephiroth asked, taking an experimental step onto the path that was seemingly made out of nothing but crusted sand. There were no railings, so he could see the bottom of the crevasse by peering over the sides. This area being dry and hardened, there was no river running through. A single wrong step would mean a plunge to certain doom.

"Until the other side, of course," Cloud said, as he was being pulled along by Sephiroth onto the half-built path. The moment he stepped clear of the walls of the tunnel out onto the path, a blast of dry wind rushed at him, almost blowing him off his feet. He gripped Sephiroth's hand harder, steadying himself. "Without the path, it'll be difficult to reach the other side. Even if we go back and take another path, it'll take us days to go around this ravine. The best way is still to just go across directly."

Sephiroth walked until he was at the edge of the path. He looked down, then across, where the other side was, trying to gauge the distance. "I'm afraid jumping across is not an option," he eventually said. "Not only are we below ground level, we are also very far away from any place where we can land safely on two feet. It looks like we will have to take another path after all."

Cloud was silent and frowning. He looked like he was thinking about something, and the abnormal glow in his eyes was still as bright as ever. His face lit up slightly after a while, and it appeared he had come upon a solution. Without any explanation, he felt around his materia pouch, using his fingers to sense which materia did what, until he found the item he wanted. "Sephiroth," he said with slight excitement in his voice, "I have an idea, but I don't know how well it will work. Look! This materia I have with me," he opened his hand, where a light green materia laid, "is a Float materia."

"Float," Sephiroth repeated, slowly. "There is no such documented materia where I come from..."

"Yes, we only found it recently," Cloud nodded. "We haven't had much time to train it yet, but it can... well, make things float, and..." the blond trailed off. He looked like he was trying to find the right words to say. Thankfully for him, he had a perceptive audience.

"And you want to use this Float spell to create some sort of a mid-air pedestal that we can use to walk back up to the other side of the crevasse?" Sephiroth prompted.

Cloud's head snapped up and he nodded, his face hopeful at first, before falling into hesitation. "But I'm unfamiliar with the materia, and I don't know how to control it properly. The only thing I can do with this materia now is to levitate a bulk of small rocks over a large area. I won't be able to arrange them into convenient steps or anything, but I should be able to hold them up long enough for you to hop onto the floating rocks one by one, until we reach the other side." He scratched his head helplessly. "Come to think about it, it seems like a rather ridiculous plan, doesn't it? Maybe we should think of something else..."

"No," Sephiroth stopped him. "No, you have a good idea there, and it might just work." He pondered about the information he had just received. "What is the size of the biggest thing you can levitate with that materia?"

"Umm..." Cloud blinked. "I can't see, so I can't point you to an example, but I think the biggest things I've ever levitated are rocks about the size of my foot."

"Can you levitate a huge rock instead of many small rocks, then?" Sephiroth asked.

Cloud shook his head. "I'm not sure why, but the spell doesn't work that way. For its first level, it will only be able to lift up small items. It can lift up a lot of small items, but for some reason it won't levitate even just one big item yet."

"And you can't control the floating items by directing them where to go, am I right?"

"That's right," Cloud agreed.

Sephiroth was quiet for a while, stroking his chin thoughtfully. He looked downwards, at the ominous and foreboding looking pit that would greet them if they took even one wrong step, literally. "We'll just have to do it," he concluded, looking up towards the ground at the other side of the ravine. "I will cut a portion of the path we are standing on into foot-sized rocks and fling them out into appropriate positions across the pit, then point you to them so you can cast the spell. Understand?"

Cloud did not say anything, merely straightening and nodding in assent. Not needing further motivation, Sephiroth stepped slightly backwards to mark the portion of the path he would be breaking up. He stretched his long weapon out towards the floor, the tip of the Masamune just touching the surface. In a movement that was so swift it was as if he never moved at all, he chopped off the tip of the path and sliced them into an impressive amount of foot-sized rocks.

Without giving the rocks a chance to freefall down into the pit, he used the back of his blade to send them flying into different locations across the wide gap of the ravine. With his free hand, he took one of Cloud's and pointed it towards the centre of the bulk of the flying rocks. "Now, Cloud!" He commanded, and he could immediately feel magic swirling around his companion.

A blast of energy jetted forth towards the position he had indicated, spreading out into a large area until it reached its destination. The spell caught the flying rocks before they fell. It was as if an invisible net had been spread beneath the rocks. They bounced up and down, hindered by an unseen force, until they were more or less floating stably in their positions.

"I don't know how long I can hold them up there," Cloud was saying. He gripped the glowing Float materia tightly in his hand. "And I don't know if they can hold our weight properly or not, without sinking."

Sephiroth gripped the Masamune tightly in his left hand, the edges of his lips quirking slightly upwards. "Then we will just have to be fast enough."

"Wait," Cloud was fidgeting uncomfortably. "You... You're not going to be dragging me around by my hand when hopping across, are you?" He asked, looking slightly green in the face.

Sephiroth sighed in a long-suffering manner. He released Cloud's hand, walked behind the confused blond, and hooked his right hand under both of Cloud's arms, holding the smaller man's back against him. "How stupid do you think I am?" He lifted Cloud off the ground easily, due to their height difference, and ignored the blond's indignant squawk. "Hold on tight," he laughed, then took off into the skies before his passenger could even begin to shriek.

Above on the ground, Vincent and Zack watched with amazement as several rocks flew upwards from somewhere below, and then stayed suspended.

"What is that, a new weather syndrome?" Zack pointed and asked his guide, who tilted his head slightly to one side and shrugged.

"I wouldn't put it past the Planet," Vincent nevertheless said, before frowning. "But... this feels familiar... I think..."

He did not finish his statement, for the figure of Sephiroth suddenly came into sight, having leapt up from some unseen spot at the bottom.

Sephiroth landed with one foot on one of the suspended rocks, which dipped slightly at his weight. He regained his balance, and was about to hop off onto the next rock that would lead him closer to the other side, when he sensed the presence of someone he recognised from somewhere behind him.

Slowly, he turned around.

"Sephiroth!" Zack shouted, out of pure reflex.

"Zack," Sephiroth nodded at his fellow SOLDIER, sounding cheered despite his neutral expression.

"Zack?" Cloud's head snapped up from where he was dangling off Sephiroth's arm like a wayward kitten.

"Cloud!" It was Vincent this time, and he could recognise the blond who had previously been blocked from view by Sephiroth.

"Vincent!" The blond perked up immediately at the sound of his friend's voice.

"Cloud?!" Zack sputtered at the same time. He turned to look at Vincent, then back at Sephiroth and Cloud.

"Sephiroth..." Vincent's voice grew frigid, as his attention turned to the SOLDIER in the middle of the crevasse.

For his part, Sephiroth was sorely tempted to say Vincent's name just to complete the picture, but he realised how silly the four of them must have looked, taking turns to recite each other's names while standing across a dangerously deep abyss. As if it could read his mind, the floating rock he had been standing on lurched, almost throwing him off balance. He swung his sword in a wide arc for balance, then leapt off that rock onto another one.

Although there were many things he would like to tell Zack, the situation did not allow for such luxuries. Even as he managed to steady himself on the next rock, it began to dip almost immediately. "The spell is wearing off already, Cloud," he muttered.

"I know," Cloud's hand grasped the materia even more tightly. "My magic is unstable because of the Withdrawal. We have to get across quickly," he said. He then turned as green as the materia he was holding and put a hand to his mouth.

Sephiroth leapt away from the rock just as it plunged to certain doom. He found another rock, landing and hopping off as quickly as he could. Finding a split second to glance at Vincent and Zack, he noticed that the lattar was flailing and shouting something, but the strong winds and the flurry of movement he was in blew all his words away. He could feel Cloud turning his neck around in an attempt to locate Vincent, nevermind the blond could not even see at the moment. "We should pass them a message," Sephiroth found himself telling Cloud in the midst of leaping around from rock to rock.

And Cloud nodded. "Can you stop for a second?" He asked.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Sephiroth said, pouncing on the next rock and letting it dip as he turned around so that they faced the cliff that Vincent and Zack were standing on. "Go ahead," he prompted.

"Vincent!" Cloud shouted, and the man perked up at the sound of his voice that was undeterred by movement or wind. "Ancient Temple!" Cloud continued, just as the rock lost its suspension and began hurtling towards the ground. "See you there!" He finished, and Sephiroth leapt away from the plunging rock.

Vincent and Zack watched until Sephiroth and Cloud became tiny hopping figures in the distance, eventually finding their way onto the other side of the crevasse before all the rocks completely lost their levitating abilities.

"That was Sephiroth," Zack mumbled in a semi-amazed voice, as if he did not quite believe what had just happened. "...and Cloud."

The short pause that followed gave the duo time to rearrange their thoughts and allow the information to sink in fully.

"Other than circling this geographic wound, we have no other way of crossing the ravine," Vincent was the one to break the silence. "And the only way back to the Ancient Temple is the airship in Junon. We should go now," he did not wait for Zack's reply, walking away from the cliff as soon as he finished his explanation.

Zack followed and was soon walking alongside. "Why'd you bring us here when you knew there was no other way across?" The SOLDIER asked dubiously.

Vincent cleared his throat.

"Because I forgot you can't fly."

 

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16.jan.2008


	17. Chapter 17

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Seventeen  
In my eyes you do no wrong.

 

Sephiroth looked at the map in his hand, then at the surroundings. "This is the place," he stated, "but I do not see anything resembling a port of any sort."

He was right, for there was no man-made building or structure anywhere in the visible vicinity. The only monumental thing he could see was the long stretch of flat, sandy beach which touched the sea. Although the sky was cloudy and there was a breeze blowing along with the tide, Sephiroth felt like he was surrounded by a stinging, stiffling heat. It reminded him of the oppressive heat that some of the Shinra machinery sometimes emitted.

"Atar Axis Airdrome is a little... different... to say the least," Cloud explained. "It was built with the universal sponsorship and approval of all the existing nations currently on the Planet. Since its basic purpose is to serve as a commerical transpose, by theory, no war or skirmish of any sort should be able to touch it. Along that line, the builders have installed a device that cloaks the entire Airdrome from the naked eye until the system is able to verify the purpose of the visitor. That's why you're not able to see it at the moment."

"Discretion is a quality I wish more SOLDIERs possessed," Sephiroth said in an approving tone, "but it is doing nothing for us at the moment. How do you propose we pass through this 'cloaking device' and gain access to the Airdrome, then? It appears that it has been programmed to read hearts, if it can even verify the purpose of its visitors..."

Cloud's face scrunched up in amusement. "You may have travelled forward in time, but technology isn't capable of reading hearts yet, I assure you." He managed to get his facial features under control, and continued, "As a safety precaution, visitors are required to register with the system before actually coming to the Airdrome. Renegade mercenaries like Vincent and I, however, use other less elegant methods of entry." He was already digging around his pouch with his free hand, eventually taking out a green materia. "Like Destruct, for example."

Sephiroth stared at the materia for a while. "You mean the 'cloaking device' is actually a spell of some sort?"

"Part technology and part spell, I would say," Cloud nodded. "And as it is with all technology and all spells, there's always a backdoor and always a counter spell."

After a short silence, Sephiroth asked, "Did you build the Airdrome?"

At that, Cloud blinked in surprise. "I... err... I was part of the team," he admitted. "But how did you deduce that?"

Sephiroth did not answer Cloud's question. Instead he remarked, "I am beginning to think that you must have had a hand in all the major landmarks in the world."

"Well, I..." Cloud was trying to find the right words to cover up the fact that he was feeling somewhat embarrassed at the moment. "I've lived a long time..."

"That I do not doubt," Sephiroth chuckled. "Well, what are you waiting for? We are just one step away from the Seers, are we not?"

Cloud lowered his head slightly. "I'm not sure if I can break the barrier device without alerting the sensors in the Airdome. I can't see and my magic is still very unstable." He stretched his hand - the one with the materia, out. "You'll have to do it. Sorry..."

Sephiroth took the materia without any qualms and equipped it. Yet another mastered materia. But considering Cloud's age, it was only to be expected. "What do the sensors react to?" He asked, mind already on the mission at hand.

"They basically react to anything that is deemed a threat to the presence of the Airdrome," Cloud said. "That means that when casting the spell, the area in which you Despell and Debarrier must not contain a sensor."

"That is very worrying," Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, "since I do not know where the sensors are, exactly."

"No, no, with your control, you don't have to worry about anything at all," Cloud was semi-smiling in a knowing manner. "There are only four sensors, facing outwards at north, south, east and west. The reason why I can't do it is because if I lose control halfway, the spell might blow up and end up touching all the sensors. You, however, should have no such problem, because you will only be breaking the barrier at the bottom of the Airdrome. As long as you don't cast the spell on a city-wide diam, none of the sensors will be alerted."

Sephiroth thought about what he had just heard. He lifted his eyes to glance upwards at the sky. "So the Airdrome...?"

"Is hovering above us, yes." Cloud finished for him. "After you break the barrier, you will be able to see the bottom base of the Airdrome. The barrier is self-repairing, so we might have to hurry. The Airdrome is not situated at a very high height, relatively speak. Since you were, I mean, you are a SOLDIER, jumping right to it should be no problem for you. After that, it's just a matter of navigating through the base structure to reach the actual Airdrome."

"All right," Sephiroth was already charging the spell. "But how are we supposed to get on an airship if security in the Airdrome is really so tight, then?"

"Oh, well, that's the beautiful thing about Atar Axis," Cloud stated. "Once you're actually inside, nobody bothers to question you, since it's considered rude to be suspicious of someone who has been granted access by an international entity." He smiled slightly. "We can book a flight to anywhere we want with no problems, essentially."

"And the related authorities are not afraid that the system might fail in one way or another?" The skeptic in Sephiroth was rather alarmed by it all.

"It hasn't failed them all this time, has it?" Cloud shrugged. "Only a mastered Destruct materia can break through that barrier, anyway. In a world where materia is but a lore, it's highly unlikely that just anyone off the streets could find out about the backdoor so easily." He tilted his head to a side, trying to face the direction he thought Sephiroth was standing. "Well, as the General of an army of disciplined military men, I suppose you might find the mercenary method a little offensive. I apologise if that's the case."

"No," Sephiroth replied almost immediately, without thinking. "In my eyes you do no wrong. In fact..." he put a hand over his mouth, which was starting to show signs of a smirk. He knew Cloud could not see him, but it was the principle of the matter. "...I think I might actually be quite suitable for mercenary work."

Cloud was unsure if Sephiroth truly meant what he said or if the SOLDIER was just humouring him. Nevertheless it did not appear he would be objecting to the suggestion, and that was enough for now. "If you say so then. I'm ready when you are."

Sephiroth nodded, releasing Cloud's hand to grab him under his arms like when he had to lug him across the valley previously. This time, Cloud was rather compliant. His brief reunion with Vincent had reminded him of his ultimate goal, and how sacrifices often had to be made in the course of attaining to that purpose. Not that this was much of a sacrifice, except perhaps a sound beating to his pride, but he could patch that up later. Time was not an issue for him, after all.

Noticing that Cloud appeared to be behaving, Sephiroth went ahead with the spell. He aimed for the sky directly above them, and when the Debarrier shot upwards, a portion of the sky shattered into a thousand pieces. Without the barrier hiding anything, Sephiroth could see what looked like a complex design of overlapping metal plates and pillars. He was deciding which pillar to hop onto when the barrier regenerated and became a sky again.

"Its regeneration rate is alarmingly fast," he remarked.

"If you can widen the Debarrier spell area and use Despell immediately after that, it should stay down for at least a good few seconds more," Cloud suggested.

Without answering, Sephiroth threw out yet another Debarrier, this time with a wider reach. A large chunk of the sky fell away, and the SOLDIER briefly wondered how big was the Airdome exactly. He had no time to ponder further, however, for the hole was already beginning to close up. He shot a Despell at the circumference of the circle Debarrier had carved out, and the regeneration grinded to a halt.

"Time to fly, then," he murmured, and bent his knees.

The next thing Cloud knew, he was hearing the whirling of machine parts and surrounded by the smell of well-oiled metal. "That was fast..." Cloud said, quashing the uneasy feeling that was stirring up in his stomach. He glad for once that he was unable to see for now.

"And not a moment too soon," Sephiroth agreed. He had leapt onto a large metal pillar above the broken barrier. As soon as his feet touched the pillar, however, the hole in the barrier broke free from the Despell and snapped shut like an angry alligator. Still holding onto Cloud, he glanced at the surroundings, trying to locate an exit route.

"There is a staff lift somewhere towards the east," Cloud offered, as if sensing Sephiroth's intention. "There are no surveillance cameras in the Airdrome, so rest assured that it's safe."

Sephiroth frowned slightly. "Perhaps the designers of this place was a little too optimistic about human nature."

Cloud almost laughed out loud at that. "Who would dare to put themselves against the wrath of the international community by betraying their trust? Besides me, I mean. But I've got nothing to lose."

"I am quite sure there are other people out there who neither have regard for the international community nor have anything to lose, so to speak," Sephiroth replied seriously. "People like the Bazookas."

There was a short but grave silence.

"Which is why we need to get to the Seers as soon as we possibly can," Cloud's voice was quiet but barely controlled, brimming with emotions.

"That, I will not disagree with," Sephiroth nodded, already hopping eastwards from pillar to pillar. As he noticed that they were coming closer to the lift, he spoke out again, saying, "Although I cannot see eye to eye with the principles this building was founded upon, I acknowledge that the trust it displays towards humans as a whole is commendable." He allowed himself a barest hint of a smile. "Perhaps it is the existence of landmarks like this that the Planet is still convinced to carry on for its inhabitants, despite the odds."

Cloud was staring out into space, his eyes glazed over not because he could not see, but because he was trying to understand what Sephiroth was saying. "Thank you," he eventually said, unsure of what he was thanking the other man for.

Sephiroth smiled in reply, and pressed the button for the lift.

They took the elevator up in silence. When the duo arrived at the ground level of the Airdrome, Sephiroth had set Cloud back on the ground and was pulling him along again. To Sephiroth's surprise, the Airdrome was rather crowded and bustling with activity that belied its secrecy. To his slight irritation, the process of getting a flight to Hope Island, which Mideel Town was now known as, was as easy as Cloud had said it would be. He told himself to stop being such a paranoid freak and went to stare at the huge auto-billboard that was hanging from the ceiling of the massive interchange instead.

"The flight leaves in fifteen minutes," Sephiroth said out loud for the benefit of his companion.

Cloud nodded in acknowledgement. "I hope Vincent catches up soon..." he was mumbling.

"Vincent," Sephiroth said, "was with Zack, wasn't he?"

"Hmm? Yeah... I think so?" Cloud said, in a rather distracted manner. "I used to know a Zack," he continued in a sadder voice, "but that couldn't possibly have been the Zack I knew..."

Although Sephiroth's gut instinct told him that there was a high chance that the Zack Cloud knew was the Zack he knew as well, he kept that line of thought to himself. It would not do for him to confuse his guide even further. Tugging Cloud's hand, he walked towards the departure gate. "Mideel awaits," he announced sombrely, "and your Seer friends had better hope they have a very good reason for pulling this trick on all of us."

"For their sake, I hope so too," Cloud mumbled unhappily.

x--x

The flight to Mideel went without a hitch, as both Cloud and Sephiroth decided that it would be in their best interests to remain holed up in their cabin until they touched down. As Cloud was unable to see, he could not help if Sephiroth got into anymore... cultural situations. Sephiroth was certainly not going to argue against the wisdom of that statement.

"So far so good," Cloud was saying, when they had docked at Hope Island. "Now we'll just have to find someone willing to ferry us over to the Woodlands Area."

"That may be a problem, since 'the local community views the Woodlands Area as a cursed land, for to their knowledge, no one has ever managed to return alive from that place,'" Sephiroth recited from rote what he had read from the library at Kalm. He glanced sidelong at Cloud. "I wonder how true exactly is that last part?

Cloud gave it a little thought. "Nobody knows that the Seers have their headquarters in the Woodlands Area. Couple hundred years ago, the Seers got people to spread rumours about how dangerous the place is in order to keep nosey-parkers out. Even if people did dare to go there, the Temple of Ancients isn't exactly a very easy place to locate. That said, the Temple itself is rigged with tricky traps and misleading labyrinths. But the traps are only activated when the Temple views those who have stepped in as enemies, so I haven't had to deal with them since that time we were looking for..." his train of thought slammed against a brick wall and he trailed off, blinking in confusion.

Knowing better than to pursue for details that even Cloud was unable to recall, Sephiroth instead asked, "Where shall we start, then?" He glanced at the surroundings.

The Hope Island outdoor airstrip was a large, flat grassland that had no roof. Thankfully, the weather was clear and the sun's rays were comfortable. The four edges of the rectangular airstrip was littered with shacks that looked like tourist shops. Sephiroth was quite sure none of the shacks would be of any help, but one could never be too sure.

Cloud then said, "Well, I think there's a shack around here which has the schedules of the ferries going to and fro this island. Just look for the one bereft of colourful goods."

"All right," Sephiroth had already located it, and led the way towards it. He arrived at the shack in little time, entering it and seeing a booth of sorts against the wall. The young boy manning the booth spared him a listless glance. Sephiroth sighed internally. He pulled Cloud forward so that the mercenary could do the talking instead.

"What..." Cloud said when he recovered from his loss of balance. He then realised Sephiroth's purpose and quickly greeted, "Ah... good day. May the hope of the island shine bright upon the planet." He covered his heart with his palm.

Sephiroth glanced to a side and coughed to prevent his laugh from escaping. Yes, he knew about the greeting from the books he had read, but he absolutely refused to say the words himself. Cloud tried to glare in his direction, knowing full well why Sephiroth had wanted him to do the talking. Even though this was not the first time he had said the greeting before, it was the first time he had ever felt so silly. "Please, proceed," Sephiroth generously offered, after regaining his composure.

The boy in the booth, however, brightened up immediately when Cloud gave the greeting. "May it shine indeed!" Was his cheery reply. "How may I help you, gentlemen?" The listless look had all but vanished behind a huge grin.

"We're looking for a ferry that can bring us to the Woodlands Area," Cloud cut to the chase, and the boy's grin waned a little.

"The Woodlands Area?" He repeated. When Cloud nodded, the boy straightened and turned serious. "No ferries go there, sir. Don't you know?" His eyes widened with conviction as he said, "The Woodlands Area is cursed!"

The effect of the boy's comically big eyes and harsh whisper was lost on Cloud, since he could not see at the moment. He pressed on, asking, "Name your price, and we'll pay it. You don't have to bring us all the way there. Just a short distance away from the nearest beach will do."

Probably sensing Cloud's determination, the boy shrank back a little. He shook his head and hands. "No, no, nobody goes there anymore. We value our lives a lot more than our money. You won't find any of our boatmen willing to bring you there, so just give it up. Life is definitely a lot more precious than what treasure you can find in that cursed land!"

"Sell us one of your ships then," Cloud proposed. "We'll take it from there."

The boy stopped shaking his head. He leaned forward slightly to scrutinise the strangers that were standing before him. Finally, he sighed, and said, "Still no, sir. You two seem like good people. I don't want to be responsible for sending good people to their deaths."

Cloud was about to say something else, when a group of chattering tourists entered the shack and began to clamour for details about the route of certain ferries. Before long, Cloud found himself under the rays of the sun again, Sephiroth having dragged him back out into the open. "Hey, go back in," Cloud was miffed. "We're not done with that guy yet."

"Yes we are," Sephiroth countered. "He is just the agent, and has no right to sell us any of his vehicles. If we cannot convince the middleman, we have to go directly to the source of the wares," he said. "The south beach should house some boats. We should try that area first."

Cloud sighed. "I guess you're right..."

"How do you usually go there, anyway, if there are no direct flights that reach the area and the people here do not appear to like that place very much?" Sephiroth asked.

"Usually we take our chocoboes," Cloud replied. "We could try to catch some chocoboes if we can't find ships, but there's no absolute guarantee we can catch wild ocean chocoboes so easily."

"I see," Sephiroth said. "And needless to say, none of the natives here will be willing to lend us their chocoboes, am I right?"

"Spot on," Cloud said with a tone of defeat in his voice. "Why didn't I think to bring along a couple of ocean chocoboes..." He sighed again, knowing the answer to that question. Vincent was always the one who reminded him of logistics like this. He had never realised how dependant he had been on his friend all this time.

Up ahead, Sephiroth stopped walking abruptly. Cloud stopped as well, wondering what was going on. He heard the rustling of some bushes, and the frenzied pattering of footsteps on grass. Tugging lightly at Sephiroth's hand, he asked, "What is it?"

After an ominous pause, Sephiroth said, "Chocoboes."

Cloud heard two soft 'warks' from somewhere in front. He frowned. "Leave them alone. They probably belong to someone."

"Yes, they do," Sephiroth was saying. Then Cloud found his face being squashed against what felt like the crest of a full grown chocobo. "Specifically, I think they belong to you. Unless, of course, you know of someone else who also have a black and a white chocobo."

It took a while before Cloud was done being stunned. "What... that's not possible! We left them at the Chocobo Ranch!"

"I seem to recall something to that effect as well," Sephiroth agreed. Currently, he was having a staring match with the quieter black chocobo. The white chocobo had gone to bother Cloud and was warking intermittently, pecking on Cloud's head. Cloud tried to push the chocobo aside with his free hand, to no avail.

"It's just... I..." Cloud paused. "...are you sure it's them?"

The two chocoboes warked in unison. Sephiroth, on the other hand, was examining the tag that hung around the black chocobo's neck. "If the collar is to be believed, then yes, these chocoboes belong to the one and only Cloud Strife, under the care of the Chocobo Ranch." He shot both chocoboes a brief, questioning glance. "Scratch that last bit, I suppose."

Cloud was already stroking the white chocobo's beak absentmindedly with one hand. "They've grown," he stated the obvious, slightly awed. "They weren't so tall when we left them there some days ago."

"Indeed," Sephiroth said. "They look full-grown to me."

"How did they get here?" Cloud still had that hushed awe in his voice. "How did they even know we were here?"

Sephiroth found himself unable to reply. He did, however, say, "Whatever it is, this solves our problem of getting to the Woodlands Area. If they were able to cross continents and oceans to reach Mideel from the Chocobo Ranch, then I am quite sure crossing just one more river will be no problem for them."

"Oh," Cloud blinked. "That's true." He then frowned. "But let's just rest for today. The chocoboes must be really tired, if they've managed to come so far..." He breathed in deeply. "Or maybe I just need a bit more time. I still don't believe this."

"Where is the nearest inn?" Sephiroth asked, disregarding Cloud's incredulity. The chocoboes aside, /they/ had been travelling continuously for days upon nights. Even with his enhanced abilities, Sephiroth himself was beginning to feel the toil of the journey. And since Cloud had lost his enhancements to the Mako Withdrawal, there was no need to ask the mercenary if he wanted to rest or not. He probably did, but was just too stubborn to admit it.

"It's towards the central area. There should be signboards near the beach," Cloud answered. Sephiroth nodded and started walking, the two chocoboes following with quiet warbles.

True enough, Sephiroth located a signboard before long, and was able to lead them to the small town in the middle of the island. The busiest building in the area was the inn, so it was not difficult to locate it. Sephiroth left the dazed Cloud in the room they had acquired while he settled the accomodations for the chocoboes. That went off without a hitch, and soon the SOLDIER was climbing the staircase back to the room again. He was fitting into the future far too well, he mused to himself. And the scariest part was how he actually liked the freedom he had been given. Perhaps he should consider retiring into the mercenary business when he eventually returned.

"If we want any dinner, we have to get it ourselves at the restaurant downstairs," Sephiroth was saying as he swung the door to the room open. Being a backwater town, the inn was nothing magnificent, sporting only two single beds, a table in between and several nondescript paintings on the walls. Even the bathroom was communal. "The chocoboes will be fed by the stablemen, so..." he trailed off when he noticed a lack of reaction from his companion.

And it was no wonder, for Cloud was already stretched out over one of the beds, sleeping like a log.

Sephiroth allowed himself a fond smile. No matter how many times Cloud liked to remind him that he was much, much older, thank you very much, he could not hide his innocent, boyish looks behind an obstinate demeanour when he was fast asleep. Sephiroth walked over to the carelessly sprawled mercenary and draped a blanket over him. Then he stepped back to observe the sleeping man.

"I do not know what happened to you to cause you to stop growing at such a young age," he said, softly, "but the burden you bear is something no one in this world should have to." He paused. "They say immortality is a gift from the goddess of the Lifestream, but what price did you have to pay in return for it?" A sombre silence passed. "...good night, Cloud," he said, and turned around. After turning off the lights, he exited the room and closed the door behind him with a quiet, considerate click.

If he had stayed a little while longer, he might have noticed the slight frown between Cloud's closed eyes. The frown soon smoothened, however, and Cloud turned towards the other side of the bed, continuing his journey in dreamland.

x--x

The next morning, the locals were in heated discussion about the dark shadow they saw travelling across the sea on an equally dark chocobo. But that debate was soon left in the dust, when the news began to report about the destruction of yet another one of the Bazookas' hidden bases.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
24.jun.2008


	18. Chapter 18

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Eighteen  
Unchanging things are nothing.

 

Cloud had lived a long time, but some things never changed. Actually, unchanging things are nothing, he decided grudgingly. He still had dreams. Weird dreams. Strange things that made no sense whatsoever. At least, Cloud /thought/ he was dreaming. This begged the question of how it was possible to think in a dream, but that was besides the point for now. There was a soothing voice in the background, telling him things. Reassuring him and coaxing him. He thought it sounded like his mother, or maybe his father; but that was not really possible, considering he had no remembrance of his father. Strange indeed. He was about to ask what the voice wanted, when a loud crash and a painful jolt to his shoulder woke him up.

He cringed in pain and held his left shoulder, which was smarting and sore. Blinking, it took him a while to remember that he had lost his sight to Withdrawal. He muttered unhappily under his breath.

"Do you always wake up like that?" An amused voice forced Cloud to snap his head upwards. He then relaxed, realising it was only Sephiroth.

"No I don't," he did not know why he even bothered to reply. "I had a bad dream, that's all." He shuffled around a bit, finding the bed and hauling himself up onto it again. "What time is it?"

"Early," was Sephiroth's only answer. "I have already procured supplies and food. We can set off for the Woodlands Area anytime you are ready."

"Oh," Cloud scratched his head, still not quite awake yet. "I suppose we'd better scram before the rest of the island wakes up. I really don't want them to see us riding on chocoboes over to the Woodlands Area. Imagine the uproar it's going to cause."

"Indeed," Sephiroth agreed. He stood walked over to where Cloud was sitting. "Are you sure you are well enough to travel?" He asked. "You look tired."

Cloud was busy stifling a yawn when Sephiroth had been walking over. "Oh, I'll be fine," he mumbled, voice still slightly hoarse. "Had a strange dream, is all..." He tried to stand by himself, and succeeded. "Need you to lead the way to the bathroom before we go..." Another yawn escaped his lips, and he covered his mouth again.

"Very well, come this way," Sephiroth took hold of Cloud's other hand and started to lead him down the corridor to the communal bathroom. After that, they tidied up the room a little, gathered their things, and quietly made their way out of the inn, having already paid for the room last night. They found their chocoboes with no difficulty, although they had to cheat a little by casting a Sleepel over the stablemen, who were playing cards in the lounge. The chocoboes appeared to sense the mood, for they kept perfectly quiet until they were all quite a distance away from civilisation. By the time they were near the southern beach, the chocoboes had started warking and were running in circles around their humans.

"All things considered, that went pretty well," Cloud remarked. The black and white chocoboes were taking turns to go around him, kicking up quite a lot of sand while they were at it. "Hey, stop that," the mercenary scolded, but the birds failed to pay him heed. He sighed. "How are we going to cross the sea, then? They may be full-grown, but I doubt they can carry two people at once, especially with our combined weaponry and armour..."

"We will each saddle a chocobo," was Sephiroth's no-nonsense reply. "I have already linked the two of them together with a long rope with two loose nooses at both ends. I will lead, and as long as we go slow, I foresee no major problems. I have already tested their ability to bear burden - they should be able to carry us as long as we do not ride together," he finished his explanation, and glanced at Cloud. "Any questions or objections?"

Cloud blinked. "...no," he eventually said. Then added, "You have this thing all thought out."

"Someone had to," Sephiroth shrugged. He beckoned the white chocobo over, and the bird approached cautiously. Pulling Cloud towards the chocobo, he asked, "Can you hop onto the saddle yourself?"

Cloud felt around the chocobo's back until he found the saddle that was attached to the neck of the bird. "I think I should be able to make it," he said, then hoisted himself onto the seat with little difficulty. After all these years of chocobo riding, getting on was almost like second nature to him. "There!" He announced.

For his part, Sephiroth walked around the chocobo to make sure that there was nothing out of place. Satisfied that Cloud would not fall off at a gust of wind or toss of wave, he gave the bird a couple of pats on the side of its neck. The chocobo shook its head and warked. The SOLDIER than went over to the black chocobo, and hopped onto its saddle. He observed that the morning sun was just starting to peek out over the horizon. It was a sight to behold, but Sephiroth knew that now was not the time to be appreciating nature. He kicked the chocobo lightly, and soon they were slowly trekking over the surface of the ocean towards the Woodlands Area.

Where their final destination awaited. Hopefully.

x--x

"What are you going to do when we find the Seers?" The sudden question from Cloud caught Sephiroth off guard. The SOLDIER had been in the midst of dismembering the low, overhanging branch of a nearby tree. The duo had been trekking in the forest of the Woodlands area for a while on their chocoboes, in search of the Seers' ziggurat.

"I want answers, Cloud," Sephiroth eventually replied, as he hacked away another low branch. "And depending on what the Seers say, I may have to do something incredibly destructive. Not to the point of annihilation, of course, because I still need them to send Zack and myself back to our proper timeline," he sounded pleased with his plan, and another tree lost a protruding branch to the Masamune. After a contemplative silence, he returned the question. "What about you?"

Cloud found himself narrowing his eyes, despite the fact that he could not see. "I want answers too," his voice was quiet, but determined. "And I think it's about time she gave me a straight one."

The SOLDIER said nothing in reply to that. He did, however, point out, "We have been wandering around the jungle for almost the whole morning. Have you any idea at all where exactly this Temple may be?"

"No..." Cloud sounded slightly deflated, although his expressions betrayed nothing. "I can usually sense it when it's nearby, though. I've become some sort of an honorary Ancient of sorts over the years... without all the perks, of course," the last sentence was mumbled in a grudging tone.

Sephiroth snickered quietly to himself. "So we will just have to keep wandering until you sense something?" He asked.

"Unfortunately," Cloud sighed. Then, as if on cue, an electrifying charge shot through his body, and he jolted. "Hold up," he uttered to Sephiroth, who was up in front. The General reined the black chocobo to a stop as requested, turning slightly to regard his companion. "I can sense it," Cloud explained, frowning in an attempt to try to get a clearer feel. "It's nearby... somewhere northwards."

Northwards was a stretch of trees and more trees. There was no sight of anything that even resembled a building anywhere, as far as Sephiroth could tell. Nevertheless, he started to lead the chocobo towards that direction, trusting his guide more than he trusted his vision. This was Cloud's time and territory, after all.

As Sephiroth ploughed further north, however, a low buzz started to develop at the back of his head. At first, it sounded like the muffled sound of a big crowd of people talking at the same time. Slowly, it increased in volume. At length, the sound became so loud, it was almost as if he was walking through the busiest street of Wutai during a festival, with everybody talking through loudspeakers. It was a jarring and unpleasant sensation, to say the least. So distracted he was with the sounds that he almost missed Cloud's warning from behind.

"Stop, stop," Cloud called out, holding his head with one hand. "This is the area. Don't go any further without dispelling. My head is just about ready to crack."

"What a coincidence," Sephiroth muttered unhappily, hardly able to hear his own voice in the din that was in his head. "My head is about to blow up, too."

Cloud blinked his eyes that were wide with surprise. "You can hear the cries of the Planet too?"

"Is that what this horrendous noise is called?" Sephiroth asked, appalled. "Then yes, I can hear it loudly and clearly." He hopped off the black chocobo, a materia on his sword glowing as he did. "Dispell, you say?" He asked, turning to look at Cloud. The mercenary nodded, and Sephiroth unleashed the spell over as wide an area as he could.

Instantly, a building sprung up a few feet away from where the duo were standing, replacing the trees that had been there. Sephiroth immediately figured out that it was a clever illusion cum manipulation spell which hid the building and also directed wanderers away from it. The weathered monument rose higher and higher until its entire height could be seen with the naked eye. Sephiroth noted with delight that the cries had also faded with the dispelling as well.

"The entrance is up a flight of steps on the east face," Cloud said.

Sephiroth nodded and hopped onto the chocobo again, leading the way to the east side of the pyramid-like structure. Once there, he got off and went over to Cloud, helping him down from the white chocobo. The two chocoboes warked and shook their heads when they were freed from their riders. When the two humans were about to make their ways up the flight of steps, the two birds attempted to follow, much to Cloud's dismay.

"Stay," Cloud instructed, and Sephiroth could see the chocoboes wilting visibly. "It's too dangerous," he explained. "If we need to escape for some reason, you two have to be safe out here so you can carry us away as fast as possible. Understand?"

The two chocoboes stared at each other for a brief moment. Then they turned to Cloud and warked happily. Right after that, they flapped their wings and settled down on the grass at the foot of the Seers' Temple. Sephiroth was surprised that the chocoboes could actually understand Cloud. Once again, he wondered if Cloud was the right species, but not for long, for Cloud was already tugging at his hand for his attention.

"Let's go," the blond said, his countenance grave and his tone serious. "Our answers await."

Sephiroth glanced at Cloud for a brief moment, then turned towards the massive monument in front of them. Without a word more, he ascended the broken steps of the Temple, ready to face the culprits behind his woeful misadventure forward in time.

Once they reached the platform on the second level, Sephiroth noticed that there was a stone device in front of what looked like a wall that could be moved. He ignored the device and went towards the wall, tapping, pushing, and knocking on it for any indications that he could somehow open it. The sturdy thing did not budge an inch.

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked.

"There is a wall here blocking approach into the inside of the temple," Sephiroth answered.

"What?" The mercenary was surprised. "There was never a wall blocking the entrance all the times I've been here..." Cloud trailed off, and he put a hand to his chin in contemplation. "...but, wait... the temple /does/ set up traps and blocks approach to those whom it perceives as enemies..."

"Apparently we fall under that category, then," Sephiroth supplied. He stepped backwards and lifted up his long sword. "In that case, I suppose we had better play the role properly," he said, and without warning, unleashed a series of ferocious slashes at the wall. The noise of metal cringing against ancient stone filled the silence and echoed throughout the forest. After the barrage of attacks, the wall was visibly blocked by flying dust and sand. It took a while before everything was settled down again, but to Sephiroth's slight dismay, the wall remained steadfast. It stood as firmly as ever before the duo, continuing to block them from their destination. He was about to complain - eloquently, of course, when the wall flashed with a dark, grim light.

A creature with a distorted head and ghoulish fangs crawled out from the surface of the wall, its drool dripping holes on the stone bricks beneath it. Sephiroth slashed at the creature out of pure reflex, cleanly beheading it before it had the chance to roar. And it was just as well, too, the General thought to himself. That thing looked like it had breath that would put any decent Marlboro to shame. The dismembered head rolled down the stone steps and came to a stop near the seated chocoboes, both of whom warked offensively and quickly shifted to another spot.

"What just happened?" Cloud asked.

"Something crawled out of the wall, and I lopped its head off," was Sephiroth's casual reply.

Silence.

"Wow, you slayed the temple's ferocious gatekeeper? Just like that?" Cloud's tone was full of amazement.

"The Seers need to employ a better looking watchdog," was all the General had to say. He stared at the motionless body of the gatekeeper. At first glance, it looked as if the gatekeeper was a living creature, but once it was defeated, its real form emerged, and Sephiroth saw that it was actually just a group of animated rocks. "More importantly, how do we get past the door?" He asked, deciding that the gatekeeper was not worth his attention anymore.

"Well..." Cloud thought long and hard. "It's been a long time since the temple shut its doors on me... let me see... I believe there should be something nearby that we can use to get in. We may need to solve some puzzle, though."

Sephiroth turned around, and the strange-looking platform in front of the wall caught his attention again. He approached it, noticing that there was something like a bowl on top of it. The bowl was filled with shimmering green water. He wondered if it was safe to touch it, but thought the better of it. "There is a bowl with green water on top of a platform here," he described to Cloud, who perked up at the explanation. "I assume it is not safe to touch it?"

Cloud said nothing, merely walking closer to where he thought the bowl was located. Sephiroth stopped him before he walked into the platform. "Actually," Cloud said as he lifted a hand, "we /do/ have to touch these things. These are triggers which will open up the closed doors of the temple as long as we solve the riddle they propose to us." He grasped around until he found the bowl, and then dipped his whole hand inside. "One person has to activate the riddle while the other solves it. That's how the temple traps work."

As he was saying that, a large behemoth leapt out from a dimensional split in the bowl and positioned itself on the steps leading up to the blocked entrance. It roared and immediately flung itself towards Cloud, who seemed blissfully unaware of the sudden turn of events. Thankfully for him, Sephiroth's blade found the beast first. He sliced the thing into two, and was not surprised when the behemoth reverted into rocks and stones immediately after he had defeated it. He sighed and turned to Cloud. "Riddles? Really?"

"If they really hate us, they'd just send gatekeepers and guardians to appear from every trigger we touch, of course," Cloud shrugged, removing his hand. The platform flashed and vanished mysteriously, just as the stone wall was pulverised by an invisible force, leaving the entrance wide open for them. Cloud turned towards the newly opened entrance, and he was joined by Sephiroth shortly. "I'll activate all the triggers," he declared with silent determination. "You'll have to do the rest."

Sephiroth kept his sword, caught hold of Cloud's hand, and started walking. He had many things to say, but he would refrain for now.

x--x

As it turned out, Cloud was right. Every trap they triggered led to a confrontation with either a monster or a group of monsters - all of which were made up of animated rocks. The inside of the temple was exactly what Sephiroth imagined a dark, dingy labyrinth would look like. If it were not for his enhanced SOLDIER abilities, he very much doubted he could have even made it further than the first corner. The duo were already quite deep in the temple, having gone up at least three flights of steps, when Cloud spoke up.

"Wait," he groaned, coming to a stop and forcing Sephiroth to stop as well.

"What's wrong?" Sephiroth asked.

"The voices are getting louder," was Cloud's vague reply.

Sephiroth frowned and concentrated, trying to hear the voices Cloud was talking about. He could hear nothing. "I heard those voices when we were outside just now," he said, while turning his head to glance at Cloud, "but I cannot seem to hear them now..."

Cloud wanted to reply, but the jarring noises in his head had gotten so loud that he could not make out what Sephiroth was saying properly. The voices bore down on his mind with a crushing weight, causing him to become dizzy and disorientated. He let go of Sephiroth and crumpled to the ground with both hands on his head, whining softly in pain. He thought he could feel Sephiroth put a hand on his shoulder, asking him if he was all right, but the static in his mind was not letting him do anything but focus on the pain.

He knew this feeling all too well.

He was starting to completely recover from his Withdrawal.

Cloud realised belatedly that he should have expected this to happen. Going near the temple, which was one of the last few places in the world directly connected with the Lifestream, was bound to speed up his recovery beyond imagination. He had been so caught up with finding the Seers and demanding answers, however, that he had forgotten all about that. The thought that he was suffering from temporary blindness had not bothered him as much as he should be, for he had a trustworthy companion by his side. Even though Sephiroth was no Vincent (and had been a complete stranger just a few days ago, to boot), he had proven his loyalty, and that was enough for Cloud. He was upset, however, that their plans were going to be ruined because of his complacency about their current state of affairs. His clutch on his head tightened as the pain got from bad to worse.

From his position beside the curled up mercenary, Sephiroth also knew what he was seeing. He had noticed Cloud's eyes suddenly flaring up with an unbelievably strong glow just now as the blond was talking about hearing voices. Then Cloud literally crashed to the floor. The mercenary was recovering from his illness, which was a good thing, as he would become a valuable companion in this convulated maze when in top form. The bad thing, however, was that the time each person took to recover from Mako poisoning - or in this case, Mako withdrawal, was completely random and could be anywhere from minutes to months. And he was not sure if they had that much time on their hands. He tried to shake Cloud's shoulder again - gently. Cloud replied with a pained gurgle.

Sephiroth frowned. He took stock of the environment quickly. They were in a long and narrow stone corridor lit by dim fire torches on both sides. In between the torches were motifs and drawings that had been carved into the large stone boulders, possibly describing the history of the Ancients. Cloud had earlier said that monsters would attack them whenever they triggered a puzzle, but unbeknownst to the temporarily blind blond, Sephiroth had also gotten rid of a few monsters that were not from any triggers. Amidst the chaos he even had to deal with a few silent traps in the form of poisoned needles and shots of elemental magic from seemingly nowhere. He did not mention them to the mercenary. They did not seem like anything threatening, as he had disposed of them rather easily.

Now, however, he was in a fix. They were wide open in a long hallway with nowhere to hide from the spontaneous traps. Sephiroth tested the walls of the corridor with his sword. Rock solid. No hidden chambers at all. In the distance, muffled rumbling could be heard, and vibrations felt. The rumblings and vibrations got more severe, making the fire torches flicker, and then Sephiroth was suddenly fully alert.

There was something large and heavy crashing down the corridor, heading directly for them.

Without a single moment of hesitation, Sephiroth scooped the anguished blond into his arms and took to flight in the opposite direction of the angry rumblings. He had entertained the thought of standing his ground and smashing the incoming thing - most probably a huge rock by the sound of it, up, but he remembered how the temple's stone entrance did not even so much as chip when he attacked it just now. Being in a narrow passageway meant that he was in no position to be using any major magic to crush it into smithereens. He also had a sick and distracted charge in his care, so that essentially only left him with one viable option for now.

The option of fleeing.

The large object - he could see with a quick backwards glance that it was indeed a huge, round rock, continued rolling after them, gaining more and more speed as it sped across the corridor. Sephiroth returned his attention to the front, narrowing his eyes and assessing the situation. Based on the airflow around him, he could sense the hallway widening out into a larger room of sorts up in front. If he could get there in time, the problem of the trailing rock could be dealt with. Unfortunately, the rock was already almost at the heels of his feet, the loud sounds that it was producing drowning out the plans in his head.

The large room in front was near, but not near enough. There was only one chance for him to make a leap for it. And he could probably make it, if the stone just slowed down for a split second. He resisted the urge to curse merrily like Zack. Whoever designed the traps for this place had such a twisted sense of humour, they would probably find Hojo's company delightful, to say the least.

Once he finished his internal snipe, Sephiroth cast the strongest physical barrier spell he could around himself and Cloud, who had turned limp a while ago. His eyes were wide open, however, and still flashing like the sun. Sephiroth continued to enhance the barrier around them, placing layer after layer of shields. He could hear the rock crashing against the spell from behind, conjuring up a slew of sparks and fireworks. This was accompanied with grating screeches which sounded like a braking car sliding towards an accident. One of the barriers caved, but Sephiroth had another one up before the stone could invade any further. He had to repeat this countless times, until the hallways finally started to widen out a little.

Sephiroth could see ahead into what he had thought was a large room all this time. To his slight dismay, what laid ahead was not a room, but a large cavern with no floor. It did have a few pieces of rocks jutting out from the dark valley beneath it which could serve as stepping stones, but the General was not sure if he wanted to risk his and Cloud's lives by jumping onto them. It appeared he had no choice, however. The rolling rock behind them shattered his final layer of barrier, just as he made the immediate decision to jump. Putting all his SOLDIER strength into that one leap, he found himself sailing through the air, towards a piece of stepping stone that was closest to the entrance of the cavity.

Looking down, Sephiroth saw the rock rolling out into the open and plunging into the darkness beneath. The sudden silence that descended upon his ears as soon as the rock was no longer scrunching against stone walls was quickly replaced by the sound of the lashing winds beating against his ears while he made what definitely qualified as an inhuman leap. Deciding that the rock was no longer an issue, he returned his attention to the front, concentrating on directing his fall so that he would land on something firm.

And he was about to succeed, too, when all of a sudden, tendrils of green energy surrounded him and obscured his vision.

Startled, Sephiroth could only watch as the Lifestream continued to extend and wrap itself around the two of them, gently supporting them by suspending them in mid-air. With both his hands full, the SOLDIER was quite unable to fight back. And he was not sure if he was supposed to fight back, anyway. Slowly, quietly, more and more green energy circled the duo until finally, they were completely engulfed.

The gentle green rays flared a searing white.

Then they dissipated into thin air, leaving nothing in their wake.

The loud echo of the rock hitting the bottom of the pit at last resounded through the cavern, as if in finality.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
6.feb.2009


	19. Chapter 19

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Nineteen  
The haunting words are a gentle illusion.

 

When the pain in his head slowly abated, Cloud found himself retreating into his subconsciousness. He was being positioned atop a mountain near the village of Nibelheim. The harsh winds whipped out at him, causing his weathered cape to flap noisily. He could smell the nostalgic scent of his hometown - marred by the ever present stench of machined Mako. There was something else, however. Something different.

Looking down, he traced the smell of burning fire to the sleepy town, now alight with a dancing inferno.

His heart clenched, and he made to move towards the town; to activate his materia; to do something, anything to put this dangerous fire down. Then he stopped. He blinked. Nibelheim did not exist. Not anymore, in the world he was living in. Was he dreaming again? It was getting to be quite a frequent occurrence lately.

But when did Nibelheim ever burn?

Then he was standing in the fire, looking at the houses going up in flames around him. A Shinra infantryman was sprawled on the ground in front of him, groaning in pain. 'That's me,' Cloud thought to himself, surprised at how lucid he was. A gush of wind alerted him to another presence. Zack sped past him, bending down to check on him; younger him. Then the SOLDIER stood up, face contorted with confusion and rage. He turned and ran down the path leading towards the mountains, never looking back. Cloud watched him go.

'I should follow,' the blond thought to himself. And he did.

The town vanished. The inside of the Nibel reactor bled into view. Cloud stood in front of several rows of pods, each pulsating with a sickening aquamarine glow. His instincts forbade him from investigating further, so he did not. He glanced at the makeshift metallic stairs leading up to a chamber on the top row. The door was opened, but there was no light coming out from the entrance.

He thought he heard voices inside the chamber, but he could not be sure. Cloud gazed the chamber entrance, still dark and foreboding. 'Who's in there?' He could not help but ask. He was moving towards it without thinking. This was a dream, but it was a dream about reality. This dream held the key to something very important. He had to find out what it was.

When he reached the top of the room, he heard Zack's loud, accusing voice just before he saw the man's back.

"What happened to you, Sephiroth?!" 'Sephiroth?' "Why did you kill the villagers and set the village on fire?!" '...Sephiroth...?' "Answer me, Sephiroth!!"

Cloud followed the pointed tip of Zack's poised sword, to the tall, ominous man standing in front of a glass cylinder with an eerie blue creature inside.

'Sephiroth...' Cloud blinked, then frowned. But before he could make any conclusions, everything melted away into darkness. A buzz later, he was standing on a platform on the second storey, looking over the railing to the assembly square beneath. In the middle of the square were two figures. Heidegger was pacing impatiently. Sephiroth had his arms folded across his chest, his eyes focused on a distant wall.

"My fight is in the field, not the office," the General's voice was authoritative and firm, causing Heidegger to stop fidgeting. "Find someone else to be the Director of SOLDIER."

"Sephiroth..." Heidegger had a cautious tone, but the slime was practically oozing off his mouth onto the floor. "...if you become the Director, we can strengthen the military prowess of Shinra together. With your elite men and my massive army, what's going to stop Shinra... stop US," the emphasis was more than subtle, "from commanding the world to..."

"Excuse me, Director," Sephiroth had turned in a swish of long, silver hair, "I have a mission I need to go to."

Then the assembly square was gone. Cloud was back in the chamber, looking at the General with that twisted leer on his face.

"I am the chosen one," Sephiroth mouthed, his conviction corrupted with taint. "The one chosen to rule over this Planet."

Cloud could see the question mark literally mushrooming over Zack's head. And he was quite sure he probably had one above his own head as well. He watched, horrified but not surprised, as the world fast forwarded, and Sephiroth slew more than one person he had ever cared about. The world kept going. And then time killed off the rest.

"Do you hate him?" Gaia asked.

The spinning stopped. Cloud stood beside the control panel of one of the Mako Reactors in Midgar. Zack was there, looming over the panel and apparently trying to make sense of it - to no avail. Footsteps could be heard in the background. Sephiroth slowly came into view.

"Yo!" Zack greeted with a mock salute. Sephiroth acknowledged him with a quick glance. "What did Director Heidegger want to talk to you about?"

"A coup d'etat which would subsequently lead to world domination," the General replied pleasantly with a straight face. He took advantage of the stunned silence that next followed to concentrate on tweaking the control panel. He was almost done, when Zack burst out into a hearty laugh.

"Oh, that's a good one!" The SOLDIER slapped his thigh while laughing out loud. "Oh, I gotta write that down somewhere when I get back! Man, it's priceless!" He kept laughing. After wiping an imaginary tear off his cheek, he asked, "Lemme guess. He wanted you to take over Lazard's empty position?"

Sephiroth did not immediately reply, for he was twisting some stubborn knobs on the panel. "He was going to recommend me," he finally admitted. "I let him know what I thought of that, of course."

Zack threw his head back and laughed again. "You're funny, Sephiroth," the man was saying. "Sometimes I wonder if you're not just holding back for something bigger."

Sephiroth declined to comment. He finished his work on the panel and took a step back. "I do not see what the problem seems to be. The controls and mechanisms are all in working order, yet this reactor has not been producing any Mako for three days..."

"Maybe one of the monsters got caught in the machine?" Zack suggested. Sephiroth shot him a half-hearted glare.

"Without the proper apparatus, this is beyond my scope of comprehension," the General folded his arms across his chest. "Zack, contact HQ and tell them to send down a team of technicians right away, so we can get the reactor up and running by today. And if they try to lie about how there are no technicians on duty because of the long holidays /again/..." He did not finish the sentence. There was no need to.

"Ooh, scary," Zack reached into his pocket to fish for his PHS. As he was digging around, he looked at the control panel again. Suddenly, a button lit up and blinked intermittently. "Oh, hey, what does this flashing thing do?" He asked, hand already reaching for it.

Sephiroth had noticed the button as well, for it had not been flashing previously. He was about to warn Zack to leave it alone, when the bottom of the Mako Reactor exploded, and the green goo beneath spurted up like a fountain. The green wove themselves together and spread out above the two SOLDIERs, resembling a tentcloth being stretched from end to end. To Sephiroth's amazement, even when the green touched him and sucked him into a spiraling vortex, it left no residue on his clothing and skin, like it usually would whenever he received his Mako showers. He was still marvelling at how it was possible, when the vortex spun to an abrupt stop, depositing him on a plane of glowing green energy.

Cloud broke away from his link with the General by stepping away. The sudden disconnection made him stumble and gasp. He had not realised that he had been viewing events from the SOLDIER's point of view, until they had arrived at Lifestream and the Planet alerted him to that fact.

Or had it been the Planet who forced him into Sephiroth's head in the first place?

The blond could hear whispers around him. He knew he was merely a spectator, so the whispers were directed at Sephiroth. The haunting words are a gentle illusion, Cloud knew all too well - but who was he to play a part here? It appeared the General too could also hear the voices, but he did not let it affect him. He looked around, his sharp glance obviously assessing the situation.

"When you wake up," Gaia said, after materialising in her chosen corporeal form with a florid display of sparkles. "you will remember nothing of this place."

Sephiroth stiffened cautiously. "Who are you?"

Gaia ignored him. "You will go forward in time, and listen to everything we tell you to do."

The General narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Gaia actually cast her eyes downwards. "The people are trying to destroy us again, this time with your methods of war... you started it... now you must finish it."

"The wars I started ended a long time ago," Sephiroth pointed out. Cloud was amazed at how unfazed the man was at the entire situation.

"But it never really ends," Gaia said, her voice sad. Always sad. "It is your duty to help us." In the background, murmurs of agreement could be heard.

"What if I say no?" Sephiroth stood his ground.

Gaia tilted her head slightly. "You will remain stuck in the future forever," she said plainly.

The General actually considered this for a few seconds. "That doesn't sound too bad," he said, a hint of a smile on his face.

"We will control your friend to do your job for us," Gaia continued, her expressions never changing, but her voice diminished. "He is unsuitable for the role we have for you. It is likely that he will return to the Lifestream before he completes his duties."

This time, Sephiroth's entire facade darkened. "My friend?"

A ripple and a gust of wind later, an image of Zack stirring in the barren white of the Icicle Area emerged on the swirling vortex beside Gaia.

Even though he was not really here, and this was the Lifestream, Cloud could swear that he felt the temperature in the atmosphere immediately dip. Sephiroth glowered at Gaia, who gazed back wordlessly. It was almost as if they were holding a silent conversation with their eyes. The Lifestream continued to weave a path around the duo quietly and slowly. If Cloud had looked closer, he could probably see the death grip Sephiroth had on the Masamune.

It was Sephiroth who finally conceded. Still glaring at Gaia, he said, "Very well, if you insist. Tell me what I have to do."

"You have no need to do anything, Child of the Calamity," Gaia's face did not so much as twitch, but Cloud could tell that she was in glee. "We will control you when we need to."

The General quirked an eyebrow at that. "Why did you bother to go through all that with me if you could control me without my permission anyway?"

Gaia gently folded her hands over each other. "But he wouldn't like that," she explained, her voice brimming with sadness again. "We will have to shut his memories up so that he will guide you to us... he doesn't like the idea already... why should we make him even angrier?" As she said that, she lifted her head and turned, pinning Cloud - non-existent Cloud, with her woeful stare.

Naturally, Sephiroth followed her glance. When the SOLDIER's gaze swept over Cloud's form, the latter took an instinctive step backwards, his heart beating faster than it should. Memories burst out from the recesses of his mind, where they had been sealed by something bright green. They flooded his head, nestling back into the voids they had left behind.

'I am the chosen one.'

Cloud could never wipe the image of Sephiroth's obscene leer from his mind.

'The girl is in the way.'

He saw a forest of eternal slumber. He fell to a taunt of eternal regret.

'Bring the black materia to me, Cloud.'

A haze of green clouding his vision. A body that would not obey itself.

'Long time no see, Cloud.'

A flash of the longest blade, and the most chilly chuckle.

'Until next time...'

The sinister presence beside him, biding him farewell.

'...Cloud.'

It ended, only to begin again.

'Cloud...'

How did he forget? How could he have forgotten?

"Cloud!"

The loud voice forced him to wrench open his eyes, gasping for breath at the same time. He could see again, and the room was very bright. He was lying on something hard. He did not need to see to know that this was the Seers' throne room. The air was practically singing it out to him. What he had not expected to see, however, was the visage of a worried Sephiroth looking down on him from above.

Cloud bolted up and scrambled off the table he had been lying on. His hand found his sword before he realised it, and he pointed it at the slightly stunned Sephiroth. He was breathing heavily, and his head hurt. Lowering his head and putting one hand on it, he tried to shake the pain out.

"Cloud?" He heard Sephiroth ask. He wanted to answer, but could find no words in light of the return of his memories. The image of the awful, angry red meteor hurtling towards the Planet kept coming to the forefront of his consciousness - this time with fresh meaning. "What's wrong?"

"No!" Cloud finally managed. He still could not look up to meet Sephiroth eyes. "Stay back!" He cried, almost deliriously. Immediately he could sense that he was not doing this right at all. He may have gotten his old memories back thanks to whatever Gaia just did to him, but he also retained the memories of these past few days of travelling. The inability to match them all was causing him to lose himself. "Stay back... please..." he repeated, calmer this time. "I... I need to think..."

There was silence, then Cloud heard Sephiroth moving back slightly. "If you say so," he acceded neutrally. Cloud relaxed slightly at those words, but he kept his sword up. His mind was moving at top speed, but his body was still struggling to keep up. "He's awake now," Sephiroth was saying. "Perhaps you should let him know what's going on too."

"He already knows," Cloud recognised that as the Great Seer's voice. He figured that the Seers must have been talking to Sephiroth. "That is why he is in so much pain."

"All right," Sephiroth replied. "I understand that I have somehow made a deal with the Lifestream - to destroy the pests that are sucking her blood, in exchange for Zack's safety and a trip back in time. Now, tell me - how should I go about fulfilling it?"

"She will control you when the time is right," a Seer seated on the far right said.

"Yes, she will. And apparently she's done it a couple of times already," Sephiroth grumbled. "But it may be faster if you just told me where these people are, so I can take care of them once and for all."

"Not yet," another Seer, from the left, said. "Until the black and white materia is found, not yet..."

"What's this about controlling him?" It was Cloud, who had calmed down considerably and even lowered his sword. He met Sephiroth's eyes for a brief moment, then turned to look at the Seers. "You brought him forward in time to help, and yet you won't let him help by restricting him like that?"

"He is the Child of the Calamity," one of the Seers whispered in a harsh, accusing tone. "A tool of mass destruction is only useful when used as it should be used - a tool."

"Who gave you the right to go around calling people tools?!" Cloud exclaimed in indignation, swinging his sword angrily and taking down a large chunk of the stone wall he was standing beside. The sound of the devastated rocks crumbling to the floor had not even ceased when Cloud continued, "Do you even know what the Calamity is? Have you ever lived through that period of time?! What makes you think you're better than all the rest of us just because you can communicate with some whiny brat who can't make up her mind?!"

The Seers were visibly astonished. But before they could say anything in reply, a loud clapping from the entrance of the throne room forced everybody to turn in that direction. Someone in a white labcoat walked in, and he was followed by an entourage of uniformed infantrymen. They were carrying a flat emblazoned with the emblem of the Bazookas, so it was not that difficult to tell who they were.

The question was, of course, how they had even made it here in the first place. And thankfully, one of the Seers found it in himself to ask. "How did you get in?" Cloud found himself somewhat pleased that the Seer had spoken with complete, utter bewilderment.

The man waited until all his troops were spread out around the large hall of the room, before he spoke up. "I followed the two gentlemen there, until the cavern with no floor. We had to deal with the rest of the traps ourselves, but with the Planet on /our/ side, that proved to be no problem at all," he sneered. "Now, I know that the Seers are really nothing more than power-hungry weaklings. If you know what's good for you, you'll surrender all your powers to us, and give us the head of the man who slayed our brethren!" The pompous man shot a glance in the direction of Cloud and Sephiroth. "Oh, it would be nice if you can give us the immortal man to play with, too. Imagine the possibilities..."

That sentence was not finished, for the Lifestream suddenly burst out from the ground. As they all watched on, the tendrils weaved themselves around all the Seers, engulfing them and flashing brightly before vanishing completely, taking the Seers with them. The man's jaw dropped at the turn of events, just as Cloud and Sephiroth turned to glance at each other.

Cloud could see that the General was trying to find the right words to say. It was actually quite a sight to behold, but being a mercenary for milleniums had finetuned Cloud's gut instinct so well, he knew what had to be done for now. Lifting his sword slightly, he proposed, "...Let's?"

Sephiroth blinked. Then smiled. Subtly. "Let's," he agreed.

 

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8feb2009


	20. Chapter 20

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

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Sojourners  
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Chapter Twenty  
The difference between love and desire.

 

While the Bazookas were busy being dumbfounded by the sudden disappearance of the Seers, Sephiroth took the chance to scrutinise the gigantic room they were in. It had sturdy rocks for walls which arched upwards until they joined together to form a very high ceiling. There was something on the ceiling that was providing illumination. The Seers had been seated on stone thrones that protruded out from the darkness of a deep abyss. The abyss took up nearly half the floor. The other half was of solid ground, and this was the area Cloud and Sephiroth were standing on.

After his assessment, Sephiroth turned back to look at the Bazookas. They had more or less regained their composure by then, but some of the infantrymen looked absolutely stunned. Although they were standing quite far apart, he could still pick up some of their murmurings. 'I thought the Planet was on OUR side?' One was whispering. 'Maybe the Planet ate them up?' Another said. 'I don't know anymore...' Yet another whined.

The General did not know how he ought to feel. These boys were so young, and so easily deceived. They reminded him of the cadets in Shinra, who were young, bold and fearless - ready to die for anything if it would make them a hero. Being a hero was not what Shinra made it out to be, but the Company knew how to manipulate the human mind. He wondered briefly if the Bazookas had used the same methods Shinra had.

He had no time for further thought. The man in the labcoat - apparently the leader, had walked forward with a deep frown between his brows. "The main course may be gone, but there's nothing stopping us from taking the appetisers!" He snarled, lifting up a hand. His foot soldiers immediately snapped out of their discussions and into their poses, pointing their weapons at Cloud and Sephiroth.

"Wait!" Cloud's sudden outburst deterred the man from signalling his army to move out. He held out a free hand, while the other had a firm grasp on the hilt of his sword. Even Sephiroth was surprised at his interruption, although he hid it well. He looked at the blond, allowing him to continue by not questioning him. "Shall we talk? I think we can avoid a lot of trouble if we had a better understanding of each other..."

"Oh, we understand you very well," the leader - a short man with short, greasy brown hair, dismissed Cloud's proposition with a wave of his hand. "You are Cloud Strife, the man who has lived for thousands of years. Thousands of years ago you led AVALANCHE and stopped a crazy man who was going to destroy the Planet. Yes, yes, just like a fairytale. You saved the Planet and she gave you immortality. But there is nothing in this world our technology cannot replicate..." the man smiled with ominous conviction. "We've even managed to harness the Lifestream to do our bidding... what is an immortal man to us?"

Although this man was no Hojo, he was still getting on Cloud's nerves. The mercenary took a slight step forward, schooling his features so that they would not reflect his irritation. "Whatever. What will it take to stop you guys from destroying the Planet?"

"Destroying the Planet?" The man scoffed. "We are saving her!"

Cloud cocked his head to a side. "What makes you think so?"

The man frowned at the question, seemingly confused that someone had even asked that. "We have her favour," he eventually said, a little cautiously. At the same time, he reached into a pocket inside his coat and fished something out. It was a materia, and he brandished it with a flourish. "Why else would she have allowed us to find the records that would advance our technology so much that we were able to find the Lost City of Midgar?"

Cloud remained poker-faced, but his mind was racing. Records about Midgar had been obliterated so many years ago that sometimes he himself wondered if his memories about the dark city was not merely an illusion. How had the Bazookas gotten their hands on any records that not only mentioned it by name, but spoke of how to find it? Subconsciously, he realised that it certainly explained why they had found a Bazooka base there. However, the Planet protected Midgar from being found by unwanted intruders. The fact that they had actually stepped foot in the sunken city and set up base there lent credibility to their claim that the Planet was on their side. But Cloud now realised that the man had worded his sentences carefully. He decided to pry a little deeper.

"It looks like you've come across something rather formidable, then," the mercenary said. "The only way Midgar can be found now is through the creative use of a lot of obscure materia. I assume that would be your so-called technology?" He asked, noticing that the man's pompous aura was starting to dim. He had hit a nerve, then. "In that case, I think it would be safe for me to assume that the Planet never told you about Midgar. It's true that she's watching over the city. However, with the right materia and right amount of MP, anyone can break through that barrier of protection. It's her way of showing fairness to the people who work hard enough for it, you see. Unfortunately this doesn't stop the wrong sort of people from misusing that fairness, of course."

"How..." the man's face was by now contorted with confusion. "How did you know about materia...? Everybody else calls it magic!"

Cloud's eyes narrowed. So the Bazookas referred to the orbs as materia as well. Which meant wherever they had gotten their records from, it was probably written around the time when Midgar was still reigning, or at least still in people's minds. Decades after Midgar was laid to waste by Meteor, humans had decided to move on by renaming materia into something else - hoping that by so doing, they could give themselves a new lease of life as well. Older records were archived in the darkest recesses of libraries and bookstores all over the world. A literary revolution led by some young upstarts successfully erased materia completely from all new written records. The next few generations grew up hearing only about 'those mysterious orbs that glowed' by word of mouth. The orbs themselves became more and more scarce, until memories of the orbs eventually faded away into oblivion. Now, the word 'materia' was probably just a typo on some new spellcheck machine.

This was information he could try to use to his advantage, Cloud decided.

"Your knowledge of materia probably starts and ends with knowing how to equip and then firing a spell off them," the blond said, his voice subtly taunting. He knew from experience that the Bazookas had access to summons and could refine Lifestream into materia, but he held back from saying all that, waiting for them to reveal it themselves. "...but I've been handling materia since I was a boy. You already know that I've lived longer than all of you here combined. Should you really be so surprised that I know what materia is? Or are you just surprised..." the corners of his lips twitched. "...that the Planet hadn't deigned to tell you that I knew, especially since she's apparently 'supporting' you guys?"

Even from the long distance apart, Cloud could see the man with the labcoat literally turn red with fury at the insinuation. He took a step backwards, triumphantly, even as the leader took a few steps forward to rage. "How dare you even suggest that!" He roared, the sound of his voice echoing off every nook and cranny of the hollow cavern. With flashing eyes, he continued, "We are not only able to use materia, but able to MAKE them as well! Why would the Planet allow us to do that if she didn't support us? We even have control over summon materia! Deity friends of the Planet!" He put his hand back into his robe and took out another materia, a red one this time. "If you won't stop slandering our good name, then you leave me no choice but to teach you a lesson you'll never forget..."

"But I'm speaking the truth," Cloud said, his voice sure and firm. "You've gotten a hold of records on how to crystallise Lifestream into materia, yes, but..." he let his eyes become downcast for a moment, before looking up again. "...do those records also talk about the consequences of what you're doing?" There was slight sadness in his voice. "If they do, then you know very well that you're not helping the Planet by sucking out more lifeblood from her. You're violating her and justifying it by saying it's all for her own good.

"Can you blame her for crying out for help, then? Can you blame her for trying to get our attention by flooding the desert and droughting the polars? If you really do love the Planet," the glow of despair in his eyes suddenly vanished, only to be replaced by a hard glint of determination, "then let her be. Let her decide for herself what she wants to do. The more you force her, the less you understand. Unless, of course, your love for her is nothing but a facade for your desire for power." He paused, and the silence was earth-shattering. Once more he opened his mouth, continuing, "The difference between love and desire is subtle indeed, but destructive beyond compare."

The leader had been pursing his lips, until they were drained of colour. He held a trembling hand out, then said, "Enough of your nonsense! I give you an inch, and you bite off a mile! Grab them, men! Don't be afraid of hurting them! Kill the silver if you want, but leave the gold for our technology guys to dissect!"

There was a low murmuring among the infantrymen who were behind their greasy haired leader. Apparently, not all of them had the same loyalty to the Bazookas' cause as the leader did, for there were some who were obviously unhappy with the way things had advanced. The leader growled, reaching into his pocket to replace his summon materia for yet another materia - a command materia this time. He activated it with no warning, casting it not at Cloud and Sephiroth, but at his own men. The bright flash of light temporarily blinded everyone in the cavern, but it was over in a second. The murmurings of the infantrymen ceased along with the light. They lined up properly in their rows and began marching wordlessly towards the duo at the other end of the room.

Cloud was angry. The leader had cast a manipulation spell on all his followers to force them to do what he wanted, regardless of what their will was. However, now was not the time for him to be playing the self-righteous hero, he knew. He turned to Sephiroth, who had been listening to the conversation quietly with his arms folded. Sephiroth returned the glance. Cloud wanted to draw back - it was an instinctive thing, now that his memories had been fully restored. But he resisted, standing his ground with some difficulty. "How much do you remember about your passage forward in time?" He asked, hoping his voice was not shaking.

"...if you meant that exchange I had with Gaia about her needing my help; everything," Sephiroth replied.

"Did she show you anything else?" Cloud pressed on, ignoring the fact that the Bazookas foot soldiers were already halfway across the room towards them.

"Not that I am aware of," the General raised an eyebrow inquiringly. "Should she have?"

Cloud did not answer immediately, instead lowering his gaze to the floor. The marching infantrymen came closer. "Why did you do that?" Cloud suddenly asked. "Why did you agree to let her control you? You couldn't have been sure she wasn't going to go back on her promise not to touch Zack. You couldn't even be sure she had the power to send you back to your time, so... why?"

Sephiroth stared at Cloud. The marching men kept coming closer. "Remember that conversation we had at the Underground Labyrinth?" He asked. Cloud frowned, remembering that they did have some conversation but not recalling what exactly they had spoken about. His past memories had almost pushed out the memories of the present he had gained while in Sephiroth's company. Nevertheless, the SOLDIER carried on. "I fight for myself and those who are mine," his repeated words revived Cloud's memories of that event. "To be stronger, and to verify my existence. In other words, I live," he gave Cloud a sidelong glance, complete with a semi-smirk, "to protect all that." The men suddenly stopped marching, and Sephiroth turned to regard them instead.

Cloud gave serious thought to what the taller man had just said. "So you would rather lose yourself," he could not help but ask, "than those who are yours?"

"Sometimes Cloud," Sephiroth answered, withdrawing the Masamune from where he had kept it, "the only way you can save yourself, is by saving those who are yours."

The sickening crack of a Thunder spell put an end to the conversation, and the bright light that resulted from the impact blotted everything from view for a short while. When Cloud could see the surroundings again, he saw that he had ducked reflexively behind a stone pillar. Leaving his thoughts behind for now, he reprogrammed his body for action. He peeked out of the stone pillar, noticing that the Bazooka infantry had separated into two groups and were each marching like zombies towards their different destinations. They were probably trying to hunt down the both of them at once. At least that told Cloud that Sephiroth had gotten away from that attack just now as well. As jumbled up as his feelings for the SOLDIER was for the moment, he knew he had best focus on the problem at hand first.

Another Thunder spell crashed into the stone pillar he was hiding behind, forcing him to push away from it lest he get electrocuted. The pillar cracked, then fell to the ground, and burst into dust. Cloud quickly threw up a magic barrier spell and dashed towards the formation of mindless men. He noticed with slight dismay that there were more soldiers than he had originally thought. Yet more were still swarming into the throne room, and these ones were not under any manipulation spells. They had probably been waiting outside and had not heard what Cloud said to the leader just now. Thus, they were not swayed, and the leader felt no need to bring them under mind control. Cloud still found himself doing a Cid imitation in his head. This was no way a so-called protector of justice was supposed to act.

More elemental spells hurtled Cloud's way when he went close enough to the men who were holding out makeshift wands with attack materia attached on top. Cloud deflected some spells with his sword, and ducked away from the others. He put a hand on the ground and activated his Quake materia, making sure to keep it within the bounds of a Level 1 spell. The area directly in front of him split open and protruded out, causing most of the men in the frontlines to trip and fall. Their wands fell as well, and Cloud quickly manipulated the spell to swallow up the wands, materia and all. Next, he took out an Exit materia from his pouch, cracked a portion of the floor open, and dropped the materia in. After that, he commanded the spell to cover up the hole.

He looked up, and saw that the next wave of foot soldiers were already making their way towards him. Some of them were mind-controlled drones, but most of the ones charging were infantrymen who knew what they were doing. Cloud bounded up and quickly scampered away from the area he had been in, luring the masses along with him.

His Quake materia was still active, so his pursuers were quickly being eaten up by the ground. Not completely, of course. Cloud made sure that they would be alive, but in no position to be chasing or attacking him anymore. Along the way as he led the Bazookas around the perimeter of the throne room, he dropped a few more Exit materia onto the ground, which opened up, took in the orbs, then covered over them.

The army was seemingly growing exponentially in numbers, and the spell frequency increased to that extent. Cloud ran, ducked, hid and rolled - doing all he could to avoid being hit. He may not have had to face an opponent versed with materia for a long, long time, but it did not mean he wanted to relive what it felt like to be whipped senseless by one of those Mako laden orbs.

As if on cue, an amok spell seared through his right arm. It was just a surface wound, but still he hissed in pain, almost coming to a stop before realising that doing that would just make him a sitting duck. He carried on, leading the men in a large circle until he was almost at the entrance, where even more men were /still/ swarming in. He needed to clear a path to the entrance so that he could put the final Exit materia into position and then zap all the Bazookas within the influence area away. But the crowds were pressing against him, with raised wands and other weapons of choice.

Swinging his sword, he charged up Finishing Touch and let the mini indoor typhoon blow away some of the Bazookas who were blocking him. It worked, but it was not enough. And it would take a while before he could use his Limit Break effectively again. He could always throw logic out of the window, use the third level of the Quake materia, and literally stop everyone by trapping them between rocks, but he was not sure how that would help him clear away enough space to plant the last Exit materia in the ground. The Bazookas kept growing and growing, and his barrier had long since flickered out of effect. He could throw another one up, but it would take some concentration to do that and maintain the Quake spell at once.

Over the loud battle cries, Cloud thought he could hear someone who sounded like the greasy haired leader shouting, "Don't maim him! I want him in one piece!" The mercenary resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What a nice and thoughtful kidnapper wannabe. Coming back to reality, he found himself swinging his sword to parry away even more energy shots. This was odd, he knew, for the Bazookas had weapons that looked vaguely gun-like. Now that he noticed it, however, he saw that those gun-like weapons were shooting spells from their barrels as well. He was amazed, to say the least. It looked as if the entire army of rebels used nothing but materia in their battles. They truly did think the Planet supported them.

The thought of how much materia they must have already harvested from the Lifestream made a chill go up Cloud's spine. It was frankly a miracle the Planet had not crumbled into space dust yet. Cloud edged further and further back, until there was no longer any space to retreat. One more step behind and he would fall into the darkness of the abyss that took up half the throne room. The Seers had never told him what was down there, and he was not interested to find out, either. He sneaked a quick glance backwards, then returned his attention to the front, where the Bazookas had him surrounded.

The leader walked out from the army of infantrymen who were pointing all their weapons at Cloud. "I don't want to hurt you. Come with us peacefully," he said, a much calmer person now. "You can share your secret with us, and help us achieve our dreams by unshackling us from our mortality!"

A howling wind arose from the depths of the abyss beneath, introducing an unnatural chill to the tepid room. Cloud let his eyes slowly go over each and every one of the Bazookas in front of him. "I would rather die," he stated, voice full of grim regret, "than let any of you become like me."

Understandably, the leader of the Bazookas took this the wrong way. He tightened his fists. "What a selfish man you are!" He said in an offended tone. Holding out a red materia, he shook his head. "I am deeply saddened by how wrong we were of you. We thought the hero who once saved the Planet would be more than happy to do it again, but looks like it's time for us to wake up to reality!" As he was saying all that, the red materia slowly started to glow. "No matter. We will gouge that secret out from your unconscious body even if it's the last thing we do!"

An earsplitting rumble ripped through the cavern, forcing most of the Bazookas to drop to the ground and cover their ears. The leader winced as well, staggering slightly as the materia ate up his MP. Cloud alone was unaffected. He continued to gaze at the army in front of him, expressionless.

Before long, a dark maelstrom began to form in the space above the leader. An armoured warrior with his six-legged horse soared out from the vortex and circled the room with purpose. The warrior withdrew his sword and made a dash for his target. Cloud stooped slightly and readied his sword as well. When the two warriors met face-to-face, the deafening clanging of metal against metal replaced the low rumblings. Sparks and dust flew all over, obscuring the two from view. When the dust settled, the leader of the rebels found his jaw dropping at the scene.

Cloud had managed to stop the summon's attack with just his sword and his own strength. They were at a stalemate now, each staring at the other. Suddenly, without warning, both of them relaxed their weapons at the same time. The summon commanded his horse to rise into the air, and he suspended himself there. "I thought King Arthur was pulling my leg, but apparently not," the summon said in a booming voice. "Good day, Cloud Strife. And I'll see you again in the near future," he said, while keeping his sword and reining his horse in the direction of the maelstrom he had come from.

"Bye, Odin," Cloud waved, but Odin had already passed through the barrier and returned to his home.

An astonished silence followed.

"I'm sorry," the mercenary eventually broke the silence by apologising, "but you kids don't know what you're talking about," he had a green materia in his hand, and it was already glowing brightly. Odin's entry had distracted the rebels, and he took the opportunity to come up with another strategy. He activated the spell silently - a high-level Gravity spell, and all the men found themselves being crushed to the ground by an unseen force. Cloud alone was unaffected. He started to walk through the twitching army of collapsed men; slowly and casually.

Nobody could as much as lift a finger to stop him, and he reached the entrance of the throne room in just a short while. He calmly dug a hole in the ground and took out the final Exit materia that would complete the glyph, holding it in one hand. Stepping outside the large archway of the throne room, he turned and spared the helpless Bazookas a cursory glance. "Sephiroth?" He asked, wondering where the General had gone to. It would be really funny if he accidentally teleported Sephiroth away along with the Bazookas as well.

A flash of black and silver landed beside him without any noise. "My apologies," Sephiroth said with a knowing smirk, as he rose to full height, "I saw what you were doing and could not help but notice that the formation wasn't covering all the rebels, so I took the liberty of knocking out all the Bazookas who were outside the glyph and tossing them inside."

Cloud blinked. He did know that the formation was not complete, but what he had wanted to do was to reduce as many people as possible. Whoever was left over, they could take care of them after that. Still, he was impressed that Sephiroth had been able to do that in such a short time, and while in the vicinity of a strong Gravity spell, at that. He nodded to acknowledge Sephiroth's actions, then turned to address the Bazookas sombrely.

"Go back and tell the brass that they've been dumped by Gaia," Cloud was saying. The leader of the current group managed to turn his head around to glare daggers at Cloud, who remained unconcerned. "Bon voyage, you people," he turned his hand so that the materia fell onto the hole he had dug out from the ground just now.

The moment the materia landed, it flared a bright white. At the same time, the other planted materia began to activate as well. The Glyph kicked into effect immediately. Before the Bazookas even had a chance to say a word, all of them vanished from the scene. The murmurings of pain and protest disappeared along with them. A sudden hush befell the throne room, with the soft buzz of the Glyph providing the only sound in the background.

Cloud remained tensed for a few seconds more, scanning the room with his restored enhanced abilities, before finally relaxing. He deactivated the Gravity spell. "They're all gone," he commented, wondering how he sounded so calm despite himself.

Sephiroth said nothing. It seemed like he was still examining the throne room, but there was a faraway look in his eye. Suddenly, he frowned, and drew his sword. Turning, he stepped into the corridor leading to the room and faced the darkness that stretched down the dim hallways. "There are some more people out there," he said tautly. "Can you hear them?"

Cloud stepped out as well, focusing all his attention on his sense of hearing. Then he jolted back in slight surprise. Sephiroth was right. There were dull sounds of something thumping against the floor quickly. It sounded like some more foot soldiers were on their way here on chocoboes. The mercenary held his sword out, in readiness. "I can hear them," he replied. Due to the echoes, he could not deduce how many people there were out there, exactly. The darkness also made sure he was unable to tell by sight. "What now?" He asked.

The General actually smiled a little at that question. "It's all right," the man said, and his tone left no room for doubt. "We're ready for them."

Cloud allowed himself a little smile as well, and he felt something like reassurance bubbling within. "Yes," he agreed, "yes, we are."

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
16feb2009


	21. Chapter 21

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-One  
A world without you is a world without meaning.

 

"Oh, hey!" The unmistakable voice of Zack reached the duo's ears before the SOLDIER came into sight. "If it isn't our quarry!"

Cloud leaned forward slightly, eyes wide and breath trapped in his throat. "Zack...?" He whispered in disbelief. In the confusion just now, when he had received all his memories with the force of a speeding truck slamming against an innocent wall, he had almost forgotten that his life saver was walking the earth again.

"In the flesh!" The SOLDIER chirped as he hopped off the chocobo he had been sitting on. It was the black chocobo that Cloud had commanded to stay outside. Right a few steps behind them was the white chocobo, which Vincent was riding on. The dark-haired SOLDIER practically ran up to Cloud and grabbed him by the shoulders, scrutinising him up and down. Startled, Cloud let him. Eventually, Zack finished his examination and released the blond. He stepped back and cocked his head to a side. "It really IS you." His voice was neutral, but there was doubt and confusion in his eyes.

"Zack Fair," Sephiroth forestalled any questions Zack may have had for Cloud by interrupting the reunion. Zack blinked, looking over Cloud's shoulder to his superior, who was staring at him with something akin to mild irritation - but one could never tell with Sephiroth.

Zack did a salute for the sake of saluting. "Heya Sephiroth. Been a while, eh?"

The General's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Follow me. We need to talk," he commanded, and Zack had to shrink a little at Sephiroth's tone of voice. The man was in the mood for lecturing someone. And that someone was him. There was no escaping this, he knew, so he gave Cloud a sheepish smile and walked towards the other SOLDIER.

Sephiroth let Zack go ahead. He waited till Cloud turned around to catch his eyes, then gave the mercenary a slight nod of acknowledgement, before turning away and walking further down the corridor to join Zack. Cloud actually felt his lips tugging upwards at their retreating forms. If what Gaia showed him when giving him his memories back was true, then Sephiroth was going to chew Zack out mercilessly for playing with the reactor's control panel. At least he had the decency to choose to bark at Zack in private.

"Cloud," a monotonous voice jolted him away from his thoughts. He turned, and saw Vincent standing in front of him, holding the reins of both the black and white chocoboes. Red eyes flickered briefly over his form. "I see that you're all right."

Cloud nodded. He found a nearby wall and leaned against it, finally able to relax. "What a ride," he mumbled to nobody in particular.

His friend regarded him for a few heavy moments. "What happened after we got separated at the Crater?" He asked, cutting straight to the chase.

Cloud groaned inwardly and gave his forehead a rough rub, wondering if he should go for the long or short version. "I bumped into Sephiroth and we've been travelling together until now," he eventually settled for the short version.

Vincent's face was impassive, but Cloud could tell that the man was not pleased by the explanation at all. "How did he manage to convince you he was not insane?"

This time, Cloud groaned out loud. "He didn't. I didn't even know who he was."

"Oh?" Vincent's eyebrows shot up and disappeared completely behind his forehead bandanna. Cloud struggled to find the right words to explain the situation to his skeptical friend. "I think, Cloud," the sharpshooter grounded out in a tone that was slightly scolding, "that you had better start from the beginning."

"Well, I..." Cloud opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. He opened it again, and shut it. Putting a hand over his mouth, he thought about what he would say for a while. Finally, he took a deep breath, and said, "At the Icicle Area, when the guides were bringing us to the Crater - I received a message from Gaia. She told me she was going to bring Sephiroth here somehow, and asked me to give him the box and then lead him to the Temple of Ancients in the Woodlands Area. I protested, but she said she'd already done it..."

"That's why you were so distracted and unhappy halfway through our journey there, wasn't it?" Vincent interrupted, wishing to clarify that particular oddity in his memories.

Cloud nodded, the edges of his mouth arching slightly downwards. "You know what happened after that - the Bazookas sneak attacked us and we had to split up. There was this chocobo and her chicks that got caught in the fray. The mother died, so I went into the Frozen Marsh to bury her. That was when I met Sephiroth, coming up from the beach."

"And you didn't think to attack him immediately?" Vincent sounded somewhat impressed.

"Well, no... I mean, I, well..." Cloud sputtered ungracefully, managing to sound offended at the same time. "I fainted," he admitted eventually. "I'd barely managed to escape an Ultima spell, dragged a dead bird a few miles with two hyperactive chicks dancing around my feet at every other step... seeing Sephiroth ALIVE again - and when I least expected it... that really gave me a bad shock. I just conked out. And then when I next woke up," he gazed at Vincent with eyes full of purpose, "Gaia had somehow manage to invade my mind and lock up whatever remembrance I had of Sephiroth. I didn't recognise him at all. He was like a complete stranger to me."

Vincent was silent. He was carefully and meticulously sorting out all the information Cloud was giving him into some semblance of an order. "And he didn't recognise you either?"

"Funny thing, that," Cloud's tone turned pensive. "He's General Sephiroth, not the Sephiroth who'd tried to summon Meteor. Apparently, instead of just spitting him out from the Lifestream as I had originally assumed, Gaia went to the trouble of actually bringing a sane Sephiroth forward in time."

"According to the Seers," Vincent decided that this was a good time to add what he knew to the story, "they brought the two SOLDIERs forward because they wanted them to help out with the Bazookas problem."

"The Seers said that?"

"Yes, when I brought Zack back to see them after finding the man at the Crater."

Cloud thought about it. "Why them in particular?" He wondered out loud. "It's true that Sephiroth is excellent at tactics and Zack knows his strategies, but..." he frowned, "they can't possibly be the only people in history who knew how to fight and manipulate materia well. Why take the risk of bringing Sephiroth, of all people, forward in time?"

"Perhaps you should ask Gaia about it the next time she feels like having a spontaneous chat with you," Vincent commented, wryly. "I can only imagine what will happen if he gets controlled by his pseudo mother again."

"About that..." Cloud's frown deepened. "He IS being controlled," he said, and Vincent's eyes widened slightly. "No, no, it's not what you think," the blond shook his head. "He's being controlled by Gaia. She's using him to destroy the Bazookas' base, if my deductions are correct."

"...it's true that we've been hearing about rebel bases being destroyed rather quickly, ever since the two of them appeared..." Vincent remarked. "But I can't imagine him allowing Gaia to do that..."

"Gaia has her wiles," Cloud sighed. "Either he does it, or she'll possess Zack instead." The sentence made Vincent visibly thoughtful for a second, but Cloud did not notice it. He continued, "I'm actually more confused about HOW she's doing it. As far as I know, she doesn't have a hold on him like that alien did... just... how? Gaia's always been trying to control me, but the most she can achieve is to influence my choices by her riddles. She's never been able to control me outright..."

"You cannot force the willing," Vincent pointed out. "If Sephiroth has given her his expressed approval, then it is only a question of when exactly she wishes to get him to do her bidding. And she will continue to do it, until Sephiroth says enough is enough."

This made Cloud's shoulders droop slightly. "You're right," he mumbled. "He HAS given her the go-ahead. I don't understand why he'd do that, though. He doesn't seem like the sort of person who'd make such a decision..." His words trailed, and he stared at the two SOLDIERs who were further down the corridor, talking to each other in lowered tones.

Vincent followed his friend's line of sight. "I do," he said, startling the blond, who turned to look at him with wide, questioning eyes. "I would have done the same if I were in his position," he spared Cloud a sidelong glance. "Wouldn't you?"

Cloud met Vincent's glance with his own searching gaze. Then he turned away to looked at the two SOLDIERs in the distance. He remembered the conversations he had with Sephiroth in the past few days all too well. It suddenly hit him. It was not that he did not understand, but that he had chosen not to. Sephiroth's position in his memories had always been that of the antagonist. A powerful, unstable man who only had himself in mind, and never others. To have that long held opinion uprooted so quickly and violently in such a short time had shaken Cloud so much that he was subconsciously trying to run away from having to face the facts.

That at one point of time in his life, Sephiroth had been human. He had feelings for the people around him; feelings that moved him to positive action, sometimes at the price of self-sacrifice. Gaia had taken Cloud's memories away from him because she knew how he would react when faced with his former nemesis again. He may not have struck down the General outright, but he would never have trusted him enough to bring him to the Seers.

And then the Bazookas would remain undefeated. The Planet and everyone on it would eventually perish from decay.

"You're right," Cloud admitted to Vincent. "I would make the same decision. Any normal human would," he smiled sadly. They could have avoided this big merry-go-round if he had been strong enough - reassured Gaia that he was up to the job and could treat Sephiroth like the normal person he was. "And he's human too, isn't he?"

Vincent tilted his head to a side. "For now," he agreed. "And that's all that matters at the present." Noticing that Cloud still looked a little uneasy, Vincent continued, "You've been travelling with him for some time. You're in a much better position than I am to judge if Gaia has made the right choice or not. If you don't intend to continue going along with her plan, just say the word." He nodded towards the slightly surprised blond. "I'm with you."

"No, no, it's not that," Cloud frowned slightly as he turned away to look at the two SOLDIERs in the background. "It just occurred to me... WHY does Gaia need to control Sephiroth? I'm sure he's fully capable of destroying the rebel bases by himself... yet... why does she need to do that...?"

Vincent considered the question. "Yes, Sephiroth would, no doubt, be able to take out a rebel base by himself if he really wanted to," he said in agreement. "The Sephiroth we knew and fought against, that is," his last addition had an ominous ring to it. "The man who was being controlled by someone who knew how to tap into his unknown powers."

Cloud stared at Vincent.

"Even normal men can do terrible things when stripped of their natural inhibitions," Vincent explained gravely. "A powerful man like Sephiroth could easily tip the balance of many worlds..." the man's eyes flickered over to the tall figure of Sephiroth, "...in the wrong hands."

The silence stretched when Cloud said nothing in reply. He kept staring at the SOLDIERs, his eyes glowing softly. "Fine," he suddenly pronounced. "So Gaia wants to wield him like a mindless tool because it's the only way to unlock his supernatural powers. That's between them, I suppose. I may not always trust Gaia with what she's doing, but..." the glow in his eyes intensified, as if in determination, "...I actually trust him - against all odds, ha ha..." His laughter trailed off into a deep, long sigh, and all the tension flowed out from his body. "Come to think about it, I was fighting alongside with the man who was my childhood hero all this time..." Cloud smiled a little at that. "That took a while... but the Planet sure has a strange way of granting wishes."

Vincent raised an eyebrow inquiringly, but held his tongue from uttering a teasing comeback. He rarely got to see his friend at true peace with himself, so he let him be. "And I trust you," he said instead.

"...you don't always have to, you know..." The blond sounded like he was protesting mildly. Vincent cut him short with a slight raising of an arm.

"Yes, I do have to," the taller man lowered his arm once he had Cloud's attention. "A world without you is a world without meaning," he said, and meant every word of it. "Who else should I trust, if not you?"

Cloud just stared at Vincent. Stared at him with innocent and probing eyes. At long last he simply nodded, and his smile widened ever so slightly. "Thank you," he whispered.

"You're welcomed," Vincent replied politely. "Now, shall we go see what our SOLDIER friends are up to?"

"Of course," Cloud straightened, no longer the picture of self-doubt. "There's something I need to tell them both."

The two chocoboes - who had been marvellously quiet up till now, warked suddenly and jolted free from Vincent's grasp. The man watched helplessly as the blond was immediately attacked by two rabid birds starving for attention. Cloud let out an undignified yelp, trying to keep the two birds at bay to no avail. Vincent let his eyes stray from the pile of bird feathers, to where Sephiroth and Zack were standing, still having a conversation in low tones. Soon, the noise that the chocoboes were making forced him to turn back to where Cloud was having a scuffle with the two birds. He sighed, shaking his head and moving in to help.

The SOLDIERs would come when they were ready, he decided. Until then, he had better remove Cloud from his feathered friends before they pecked a hole through his head.

x--x

"And that's about it, sir!" Zack finished his oral report with yet another mock salute. Sephiroth's brow twitched slightly, but he kept his composure. Zack did it all the time, knowing full well how much the General hated it, especially when it was obvious that Zack had no modicum of respect for military decorum at all. "It wasn't anything spectacular, just me and Vincent old man chasing the two of you all around the Planet. If I'd known we'd be ending up here again, though, I would've just went to the nearest town and booked a room or something..." He muttered, slightly discontent.

"Thank you for that most illuminating report, Zack," Sephiroth decided to cut in before Zack went off on a tangent again. "Your experience more or less tallies with mine. It appears we were summoned here... the future, to help out with some rebels who are harming the Planet." He discreetly left out the part about Gaia making a deal with him. "And I don't suppose the Seers told you why, when you first met them?"

Zack considered it. "I don't really remember what they said exactly... they did mentioned something strange, though... something about 'Shinra war blocks'. But I don't remember SOLDIER ever having any war blocks - whatever those things are supposed to be, even during the Wutai War." He glanced at Sephiroth. "Any ideas?"

At first, Sephiroth was silent, and his face as impassive as ever. Soon, though, he let out a sigh. "I believe I do have an idea," he admitted. "War blocks, you said?"

"War blocks," Zack confirmed.

"Well," Sephiroth sounded disconcerted, and this disturbed Zack greatly. "It's no wonder they summoned us, then," he mumbled, while trying to get his features under control again.

"Stop teasing me and just tell me what this war block thing is already," Zack huffed, but in a quiet manner.

Sephiroth had the fingers of his right hand on his forehead, and his eyes were shut. "...let's get our hosts. They probably should hear about this as well," he eventually said. Opening his eyes, he turned around and started walking towards where they had left Cloud and Vincent - at the entrance leading to the Seers' throne room. Zack shrugged dramatically. But he followed, nevertheless.

When they reached the other two, Vincent had just managed to drag the black chocobo away from Cloud. Cloud was gently trying to push the white one away from slobbering all over the front of his cape, and when Zack saw that up close, he laughed out loud. Offended, the blond shoved the white chocobo into Zack, who yelped and fell, the feathery creature falling on top of him. Sephiroth allowed his lips to quirk slightly upwards as the sight of Zack being sat on by a bird.

"Oof," Zack eventually managed to get up. "There, there," he pat the white chocobo on its wing, and the chocobo puffed up with a wark. "Smart birds, these," he remarked. "Came running over the ocean while we were at Mideel and took us directly to the two of you!"

This was certainly new information to both Cloud and Sephiroth, who glanced at each other for a brief moment, astonished. "They did?" Cloud turned and asked Zack. "That's... interesting." He frowned. "How did they know... they've never seen you two before... and then there's the question of how they knew where to find US as well..." he looked squarely at the white chocobo, then the black one. The chocoboes looked back at him with large, doleful eyes. "Suspicious," he shook his head. "Very, very suspicious..."

"Yes, I thought so too," Vincent agreed. "But I've checked, and they're most certainly birds of the chocobo breed."

Cloud gave the two innocent looking birds a final once-over. "I suppose that's not important for now," he finally said. He turned his attention to the other three, who were looking at him expectantly. "Sephiroth, Zack," he nodded at both SOLDIERs, surprised at how calm he sounded despite his pounding heart. "Especially Zack. I'm going to have to ask you to suspend your belief and not ask me about how I've managed to live so long, because that's not going to matter much once you eventually get back."

"You know how to send us back?" Sephiroth asked.

Cloud nodded. "I remember everything now," he said by way of explanation. "Gaia pulled you two into the Lifestream when you were at the reactor, and brought you forward in time. Since you came here via the Lifestream, the only way to go back is to go through the Lifestream again. As far as I know, only the Seers have the ability to activate the Lifestream. And they're not going to do that until the Bazookas are out of their hair..." The blond tsked quietly.

"What if they don't?" Zack pointed out. "What if they decide to keep us here even after we do their dirty job for them?" He held his hands up, when he noticed that everybody was staring at him in disbelief. "I'm sorry, I don't know these guys all that well, but there's no guarantee that they'll send us back when we're done, right? Heck, we don't even know if they CAN do it. What if it's just a one-way trip?"

"That is a possibility I have considered as well," Vincent declared, much to the surprise of Cloud. "However, I am very sure that they have the ability to send you back. Let us consider this one step at a time. The Seers are normal humans who do not have an affinity with the Planet by nature, just like all of us," he paused. "How does a normal human usually communicate with the Planet to draw on her powers?" He threw the question out.

"Materia," Sephiroth answered immediately.

And the light dawned quickly.

"They're using materia to talk with the Planet AND use her powers to do things!" Cloud almost exclaimed.

"Yes, they most probably are," Vincent nodded solemnly. "The question now is - which materia?"

Cloud was thoughtful for a few seconds. Then his eyes widened. "Of course... the materia that has the longest and most powerful connection with the Planet... Holy and Meteor...!"

"The black and white materia," Vincent supplied, "which the Seers gave to us at the outset of this entire event."

Cloud blinked. "They did?"

"That's what they said," Vincent shrugged. "That box you were holding on to when we were at the Icicle Area. Is it still with you?"

The blond reached behind him and pulled out a weathered box from where he had it attached. He held the box out to Vincent, who took it. "It's empty," he said, as Vincent opened the lid to the box. "I sort of dropped it during the tussle with the Bazookas up north. I'm not sure how and where, though... I didn't even know it was the black and white materia back then," there was a slight strain of mortification in his voice, and Vincent took pity on him by not questioning him any further about it. He slammed the lid of the box back down.

"In any case," Vincent decided to continue on with the discussion, "I believe the key to sending our visitors back may lie in the black and white materia. There may be uses for these two materia besides normal spellcasting - perhaps a dimension spell that only the Seers know how to use. If we can get our hands on the black and white materia, we may be able to work out a deal with them to ensure that they don't renegade." He passed the box back to Cloud. "Or we could try to figure out how to use them to send the two of you back ourselves."

"So in other words..." Zack folded his arms across and slowly paced a large turn on the spot. "...our next agenda is to find those black and white materia thingy - nevermind I've never heard about materia being black or white, and then decide where to go from there?"

"In a nutshell," Vincent concurred. Contrary to his carefree nature, Zack was, in fact, extremely quick on the uptake. "I'm sure neither of you like being dragged into a war that is basically none of your businesses, am I right?"

"Oh, hey, I don't really mind. The Legend of Zack the Hero can be forged at any time period I want, you know," Zack grinned widely. "But as it is, I need to ask the boss about it first," he cocked his head in Sephiroth's direction. "Well, boss? What say you to the plan?"

Sephiroth ignored Zack' antics. "I wouldn't say that this war is completely none of our business," his tone was careful. "But just in case I've come to a wrong conclusion, I would like to speak with the Seers about the matter, if it is possible, and ask them for some information as well."

Cloud and Vincent glanced at each other. Cloud then said, "They usually appear automatically in the throne room when someone steps inside. I don't know if they will appear now, though. Since the Lifestream just carried them into hiding from the Bazookas..."

"They will, if they want to win this war," Sephiroth pursed his lips tightly together. "But before that, I think you had better remove the Glyph spell surrounding the room," he smiled wryly. "I wouldn't want to get separated from my fellow SOLDIER again so quickly after we've just been reunited," as he was saying all that, he reached out and grabbed the moving Zack by the collar of his uniform.

"Hey!" Zack complained. "I was just trying to get into the room!"

"Sorry about that, Zack... There's a teleportation barrier surrounding the room at the moment. Let me take it down first, okay?" Cloud went towards the entrance while apologising. He cast a magic shield around his hand and stooped down to uncover the dirt that was on top of the Exit materia he had put there. Once he found the materia, he grabbed it and deactivated it. The missing link quickly put a stop to the Glyph spell. The air around the room stopped buzzing with a magical thrum. All present were highly attuned to the Planet's magic, and they noticed the powering down of the spell immediately. Zack whistled in appreciation.

At the same time, he wondered if he could ever get used to this older, wiser Cloud who was so different from the little cadet he knew, and yet so alike.

"We can go in now," Cloud declared, keeping the materia in his pouch. He did not wait for any of them to react, stepping in to show that the coast was clear. The two chocoboes followed, hot on his heels. Vincent went in after them, and Sephiroth had to push the still ruminating Zack into the room. After that, he stepped in as well.

The brightly lit entrance suddenly vanished from the stone corridor.

No one would find an entrance here anymore, no matter how hard they tried.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
20feb2009


	22. Chapter 22

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Two  
We find each other in order to escape from loneliness.

 

Cloud went around collecting all the Exit materia that he had left behind. Sephiroth assisted him by pointing him to all the exact places they had been buried in. Vincent, Zack, and the two chocoboes watched.

"It is so hard to believe that they were once mortal enemies," Vincent mumbled in a whisper no one but himself could hear.

Unfortunately for him, he forgot about SOLDIER super-hearing. "Are you kidding?" Zack laughed good-naturedly. "Sephiroth is his hero!"

Vincent could not deny that. "But for how long more?" The cryptic man wondered out loud. A flash of light at the other end of the room interrupted this conversation, forcing them to turn towards the source of the glow. Cloud and Sephiroth appeared to be done, for they were making their way back already. Once they rejoined the group, the light dissipated. In its place were the Seers, seated on their high thrones.

"Welcome back, my friends," the Great Seer boomed. "I see that you have finally gathered both ancient warriors to us. Perhaps the Planet can be saved after all."

"I'm sorry, but we're going to have to cut the formalities," Cloud held a hand up, and got straight to the point. "Are you guys using the black and white materia to communicate with the Planet?"

There was obvious shock written on the faces of a few Seers who were more expressive. The Great Seer, however, remained unfazed. None of the Seers said anything in reply.

"C'mon people, it's just a yes or no question. How hard can it be?" Zack butted in, and his voice was purposefully goading. Some of the Seers' actually twitched.

"I understand why you were unable to answer my questions about Cloud when I came here after the mission now," Vincent was the next one to speak. "Because you had given us the black and white materia, as per the Planet's orders; and without it, you cannot speak to the Planet or understand her as well as you want, am I right?" He asked in a tone that left no room for disagreement.

"You used some spell from the two materia to drag two people from the past here, in order to involve them in a war that doesn't really concern them," Cloud accused. "How different are you from the Bazookas who conscript unwilling young men by threatening their families?"

"That is a malignment and you know it!" One of the Seers on the left cried out in horror.

"No, I don't know it!" Cloud shouted back. "And I won't know anything until you answer my questions! You can't ask the Planet what to do now, without the materia, so just out with it! Convince me that you're not just doing all this to make yourselves feel like you're better than the rest of us!"

"The nerve of this boy...!" The Seer rose from his throne with a livid expression on his face, but he stopped when the Great Seer shot him a warning glance.

After the agitated Seer regained his composure and sat back down, the Great Seer opened his mouth, "You are right, Cloud Strife," he said, to the astonishment of a few Seers on the far ends of the room. "We use the white materia to speak with the Planet. Without the materia, we can convey nothing."

Cloud scrutinised the Great Seer, trying to see if he was being honest. Of the five years he had been dealing with this batch of Seers, the Great Seer was the one he spoke with the most, thereby making him the Seer whom he was closest to. Relatively speaking, of course. Finally deciding that the Seer was trustworthy, Cloud relaxed. "Then what about the black materia?" He pressed on. "What do you use it for?"

"Never have we used it for anything," the old man admitted, "except for that one time when we were told to hold the two materia together to manipulate the Lifestream and bring two ancient warriors from the past into the present."

"So you don't use it to cast normal spells?" Vincent threw in a question of his own.

"We can only use the materia with the guidance of the Planet," was the reply. "We are not warriors with the ability to harness magic. We allow the Planet to channel her thoughts to us through the materia, but we could never cast any spells with the materia ourselves. No ordinary materia would do, for they do not have enough innate powers to reach the Planet. Only the two ultimate materia can hope to achieve such a task."

"Makes sense," Zack remarked under his breath. But he was frowning.

"Why Sephiroth and Zack?" Cloud laid out his next question. "They're good with materia, but they can't possibly be the most well-versed in all history."

"Gaia does not need warriors who are merely knowledgeable in the ways of materia," the Great Seer pointed out. "The ancient warriors must be people who... possess great experience with warfare as well," he said, vaguely.

"Did she ask for me specifically?" Sephiroth surprised everybody by speaking out. When he received no answer, he repeated, "Did she?"

The Great Seer bowed his head. "Why... she certainly did. But how did you ever guess..."

"Nevermind how," Sephiroth waved it aside. "More importantly, did she give any reason for her request?"

The Great Seer lowered his head into a hand, his face set in contemplation. He appeared to be debating about something with himself, internally. "She spoke of responsibility," he said with a slow, measured tone of voice. "Of a debt you owed to her. What one starts, one must finish. And when the task is accomplished, the reward awaits..."

Sephiroth waited, apparently expecting to hear more. But that was all the Seer would say for a while. "Is that all she said?" The SOLDIER pressed.

The Great Seer narrowed his eyes, but nodded after some hesitation. "I do not presume to understand her mysterious language myself, sometimes," he was saying, and the edges of his eyes crinkled slightly. It was as if he found the topic of Gaia's speech patterns amusing as well, but the lighting in the room forbade anybody from ever finding out for sure. "But there is nothing more about your summoning that I can share with you." He then leaned forward slightly, carrying on in a voice that was almost teasing, "Perhaps you know better than anyone else the true reason why she brought you here to us, fabled hero of the legends?"

Following the flow of the exchange, all eyes immediately locked on to Sephiroth. The SOLDIER was used to being in the centre of attention, so he was unshaken by the sudden stares. "I am a man of war, a SOLDIER of Shinra," Sephiroth's seemingly unrelated words caused more than one eyebrow to go up questioningly. "In my course of work, I am required to kill, injure, take prisoners, strategize, and strengthen the army; amongst other things." He continued his strange speech, which did not make sense at first.

That is, until he spoke further, and they realised that it was merely an introduction to the explanation that was to follow.

"One of the 'other things' I once had to do involved a project which Director Heidegger codenamed 'War Blocks'," the General's commanding voice held the attention of everyone in the room. "Some years back, when the war against Wutai was still in its initial stages, a group of locals defected and surrendered Wutai's intimate war plans to Shinra in exchange for the promise that they would receive land and benefits when we eventually gained supremacy over the island nation. Among those plans were complicated army formations that were centuries old - part of an ancient archive that dated back to when Wutai was still fragmented into warring feudal states. Heidegger was adamant about adapting the formations into something workable for modern warfare. The man wanted to defeat Wutai with their own culture. However, the plans were written in a language that nobody, not even the most experienced Wutai linguist we had in our employment, could decipher. So with nothing but the inked pictures as a guide, I was tasked with developing a set of formations for Project War Blocks that would aid us in our cause.

"Needless to say it was one of the most inane assignments of my life. As I studied the parchments, however, I was slowly able to unravel the secrets behind the formations. The ancient Wutai people made excellent use of everything in their warfare - the weather, the landscape, even the nature of the terrain. My experience with Godo and his men told me that they, too, had these plans as the basis of their strategies. To gain victory over these men, we had to include something unexpected into the formula."

Zack snapped a finger. "We threw materia into those plans, didn't we?"

Sephiroth nodded. "It wasn't hard to draft up the formations, as well as anti-formations, after making the decision to include materia. I named them simply. Formation B, Formation D, the like. I trained all the SOLDIERs in them, as well as the rank and file. It would have worked out well, except one problem: how were we going to get our hands on enough materia for the entire army in such a short time?

"At that era, Shinra got most of their materia by trawling through the bottom of reactors for any that may have developed over time. Wutai did not have any reactors - that was the reason why we were trying to take over them in the first place. Warring against a foreign nation in their home turf meant that we were at a debilitating disadvantage. I had to find a way to gather enough materia without the help of Shinra's advanced technology, or risk losing all my men..." He trailed off, and there was an uncomfortable pause.

"And against all odds," Sephiroth's deep breath sounded oddly like a sigh, "I did. After much theorisation and testing, I found a method applicable to our situation. It was - in a word, inhuman. Enough to prevent me from employing it immediately. But this was hardly the time to be riding the high moral horse, so against my better judgement, I drafted out a detailed report about Project War Blocks - including the method to accelerate materia growth, and submitted it to the board of Directors. Unsurprisingly, they approved and recommended the project to be executed immediately. That was, essentially, how Project War Blocks became a stepping stone to Shinra's victory over Wutai."

Everybody was evidently trying to digest the sudden slew of narrated history, if the silence was any indication.

"What has that got to do why we're here, though?" Zack broke the silence.

Sephiroth's immediate reply to that was a wry smile. "I'm getting there," he said, then straightened, and the smile vanished from his face. "At the end of the war, information about Shinra's inhuman methods of crystallising materia began to leak out of the military. Of course, Shinra could try to dismiss them all as rumours, but by then, there were already countless signed written records about the project that could easily serve as evidence to the contrary.

"If the truth ever became known, it would undoubtedly cause an uprising. There was also the danger that Shinra's enemies would get wind of the project and use the same method to garner their own materia to exact vengeance on the company. Unfortunately, Shinra is ruled by mercilessly clever people. When they approved the plan, they made it clear that I was the only military personnel besides the Directors who was allowed to be privy to information about the project. There were some SOLDIERs who had their suspicions, of course, but ultimately they did not factor in Shinra's grand plan for world domination. Shinra knew how vital it was to maintain their image just after a devastating war. To that end, they ordered that all records with even the slightest bit of connection to Project War Blocks were to be destroyed."

The General paused in his explanation to lower his eyes to the floor. "I obeyed," he stated simply, "but not completely. In indignation, I retained a copy of the complete report about Project War Blocks I had originally compiled, and put it in a secure archive. I don't know what eventually happened to the world, but it would appear that the report has managed to survive all through these years and somehow - if the Planet is to be believed, ended up in the hands of the Bazookas."

"In other words," Vincent was saying, "if you had not preserved a copy of Project War Blocks back then, the Bazookas would never have been able to get their hands on either the army formations, or the rogue method to accelerate materia growth..."

"And we wouldn't be having this problem now," Cloud finished.

"Yes," Sephiroth conceded, trying hard not to sound too sheepish. "It was not my intention for this to happen, of course. Nevertheless, I have started something terrible with my lack of discretion, and now I must finish it. I have seen the way the Bazookas fight. They indeed use the formations which I have developed and taught to my men. They also have quite a lot of materia. If they are indeed accelerating materia growth with my methods, then it is imperative that we put a stop to their activities right away. Not just for the sake of the Planet, but for the sake of those who put their trust in the Bazookas as well."

His ominous speech done, Sephiroth visibly relaxed and stepped away from the Seers. Cloud and Vincent turned to look at each other, trying to hold a silent conversation. Zack was the only one who still had a deep frown etched between his brows.

"Just a sec, Sephiroth," the SOLDIER held a hand up for attention. When Sephiroth turned to look at him, he continued, "What the others were saying about the materia at the end of the war... it was true, then?" Was his simple question. He was still frowning, and his tone demanded a straight answer.

"Obviously, not all the details were right," Sephiroth clarified, "but yes. Most of them were indeed, founded on truth."

Zack' eyes widened at Sephiroth's candid admission, shock written all over his face. Then his expression simmered. For a while, it looked like that was all the reaction he was going to have. Suddenly, however, he whirled around and slammed a hand into the nearest wall, his punch carving a hole there with a loud crash. "No!" He shouted, and the cavern shook. "No!!"

Sephiroth was looking straight ahead, at nothing. "I'm sorry, Zack," he said, sincerely. Zack had turned away from his fellow SOLDIER. He did not reply.

"That was a most riveting piece of history," the Great Seer interrupted the scene with his comment. It was difficult to tell whether he meant what he had said. "I am aware that the Planet must have had a sound reason to guide the two ancient warriors forward in time, and now I feel like I can fully understand her decision. We absolutely need you to put a stop to the rebels - not just because you are the only people who have the knowledge, but also because you have the obligation to do so." He allowed a short silence to pass, then turned towards Cloud. "My mercenary friends... I hope that you are satisfied now?"

Cloud's faced twitched slightly. "No," he said, after a short pause. Though his voice was quiet, his tone was decisive. "Gaia has no business ripping two people away from their time to deal with her problems."

"But you have heard the ancient warrior's explanation," the Great Seer pointed out. "He is the cause of the problem."

"He may have been the catalyst," Cloud conceded, "but you are well aware that he is not the only one to blame. Even if the Bazookas never found that documents he had preserved, who can say for sure that they would not have resorted to some other means to facilitate their rebellion? Something that may have caused a problem that is even worse than what we're facing now?" Cloud glanced up at the Great Seer, challenging him to answer the question.

The Great Seer said nothing. "What is your solution to the problem, mercenary?" He asked at length. "If the warriors will not help us, then who will?"

Vincent put a hand on Cloud's shoulder suddenly. Cloud turned around to look at him. The taller man shook his friend slightly. "You've been avoiding taking sides for centuries," he reminded Cloud very quietly. "Why start now?" You are playing right into Gaia's hand, were the unspoken words behind Vincent's piercing frown.

Cloud lowered his gaze to the ground, his pose reeking of resignation. He soon glanced up and removed Vincent's hand from his shoulder gently. "Because it's not fair, Vincent," was his answer. "It's just not fair to them."

"Cloud..." Vincent murmured, but the other mercenary had already turned around to face the Seers again.

"I will take their place and remove the Bazookas for Gaia," his suddenly loud voice boomed across the cavern, surprising everyone except Vincent. "But before I can do that for you and the Planet, you are to send the two of them back to their proper time and never use the black and white materia to summon either them, or any other people who don't belong to this time period, again."

The Great Seer narrowed his eyes in contemplation. "You dare claim to be better than these ancient warriors at a style of warfare that originated from them?"

"I didn't say that," Cloud shook his head, "but I'm better with something else. I'm better with the geography of the current world, the psychology of the Bazookas, and to tell you the truth, I have more mastered materia than the two of them combined," he stated matter-of-factly. "I know the basics of Project War Blocks; I was in the same army they were. The details I'll ask from them before you send them back. It won't take long. I give you my word that I will wipe out the Bazookas, even if it's the last thing I do," the mercenary declared. "But can you match that promise by leaving them out of OUR world's mess?"

The wizened old man leaned back against his stoney seat. "The word of a rogue mercenary hardly seems convincing enough for us to hand the fate of the Planet over just like that," he reasoned. "The Planet called them for a purpose. She would have chosen the best people for the job at hand, I should think."

"You're right," Cloud agreed. "The Planet called them for a good reason, just like all the other people she calls to her aid - you guys being the prime example of that," he looked up at the Seers. The Seers exchanged glances, and private nods of agreement and acknowledgement went around. "What about Vincent and me?" Cloud's sudden question jolted them out of their self-satisfaction. "Why did the Planet ask you to engage these two so-called rogue mercenaries for some of her most sensitive issues? There are thousands of mercenaries out there. Why us?"

If the silence was any indication, the Seers apparently did not have a ready answer to that. "We know nothing about you but that you are immortal," one of the Seers said. "Perhaps the Planet desires your experience."

Cloud tilted his head to a side. "Exactly," was his plain reply. "Did it ever occur to you that Sephiroth and Zack could have refused? That they would have found a way to stop the Planet from making use of them? Gaia may be strong, but she knows very well what's inside a SOLDIER's body. Without willing participation, she could never gain complete control of either of them. And when that fails, what would be her last resort? She can't build WEAPONs anymore - she's lost that ability a long time ago when the balance of the Lifestream was disrupted. Now, I ask you again. Why do you think the Planet involved us in this battle?"

There was a flicker of understanding in the Great Seer's eyes. "I see what you are trying to get at," he stated. "You mean to say that the Planet initially asked for your help because she deemed you capable, even more so than the two ancient warriors we were asked to summon?"

"Must I really spell it out for you?" Cloud asked with gritted teeth. "The two of them were summoned here as collateral, that's all," he grounded out, ignoring the gasps of disbelief his words were inducing. "Are you going to accept the deal or not? In case you haven't noticed, the Bazookas have already found the Temple. And they'll manage to find it again, sooner or later. You want them gone for good, don't you?"

"Indeed we do, but the Planet..."

"Let's ask her, then."

"But the black and white materia..."

"You have a way of locating their whereabouts," the mercenary waved the protest aside casually. When he received neither confirmation nor denial, he continued, "We know Gaia too well to fall for your feigns of ignorance. She has a backup for everything. Backups of backups, even. Give us whatever she has given you to locate the materia, and we will find them. Then you guys can talk to her all you want. We'll see if she still needs the two SOLDIERs around after that." There was a small hint of challenge in Cloud's voice, tired though he sounded. "Well?" He asked.

The Great Seer stroked his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds following that. Then he spread his arms out, and a sudden burst of bright light appeared in front of Cloud. The light soon dimmed, and the mercenary could see two yellow materia floating in mid-air, in front of him. Grabbing hold of them immediately, he could feel a shock of power running through his finger tips. The materia was unlike any command materia he had ever handled before. Once he had finished getting a feel of the spell, he glanced up at the Great Seer for an explanation.

And the Great Seer obliged. "The Seek materia is able to project the caster's will through the Lifestream and find anything that is anywhere in the world. These two materia will be able to aid you in your quest, if you so please. The Planet has left them with us knowing that it will come in handy one day. I believe that day is now."

Cloud gave the two materia one final check. He could sense nothing wrong with them. They were just like any other materia, except they contained a new spell and were probably formed by the Planet with a specific purpose in mind. He stuffed the two orbs into his pouch. "Thank you," he said, plainly. "We will locate the materia, and you people will be reunited with the Planet." It was phrased as a declaration, and not speculation. He turned away, but looked back over his shoulder. "And you might as well teleport us outside while we're at it? I'm sure you can't wait to hear Gaia's voice again."

"Well, I'm not so sure about that," the Great Seer retorted good-naturedly. "But thankfully, the traps in the Temple are not dependant on the black and white materia," he laughed, waving his hand in a series of signs. Someone on the left edge of the room opened a panel on the stone throne and pressed something. "I hope you will not regret this choice you have made, ancient ones."

The four warriors were immediately surrounded by a forceful green light. The room began to phase out into a blurry patch. "I hope so too," Cloud whispered under his breath, when the room looked like it was nearly about to vanish. He thought he could hear the Great Seer's amused reply.

And then they were outside, standing on a grassy clearing in the forest of the Woodlands Area. Even the two chocoboes had been transported along, and they warked at the sudden change of environment. The salty breeze told Cloud that they were standing near the beach. And it was just as well. They were going to leave this continent in a while.

After he cleared his doubts about something, of course.

Shuffling through the grass with purpose, Cloud eventually came to a stop beside Sephiroth. "How did you accelerate materia crystallisation during the war?" He asked pointedly, with no introduction.

The question caught the attention of everybody within hearing distance. Soon, he felt the eyes of Vincent and Zack on the both of them. But it was no matter, for they probably needed to hear this as well. He waited patiently for Sephiroth to slowly turn around to regard him.

"What happens to living things when they expire?" Sephiroth replied Cloud's question with another question.

But Cloud was not offended, nor did he try to brush the question off as unimportant. "They eventually dissipate and return to the Lifestream," he answered succinctly.

The General nodded. "Yes. They become Lifestream, so to speak. Materia forms over time when there is a large, concentrated amount of Lifestream pooled in the same area. We call natural phenomenon like that 'Mako fountains'. These fountains can't be found just anywhere, as you likely know. However, there is actually a simple way to make one."

"Make a Mako fountain?" Cloud blinked in surprise.

"Each dead body contains enough Lifestream energy to crystallise into a materia with treatment." Sephiroth continued as if Cloud had not spoken. He held a hand out towards a large tree at the edge of the clearing.

"First, I reduced the size of the body," he said, and cast the Mini spell on the tree. The tree emitted a sickening crack sound, and it shrank until it was just a foot tall. "Then I cast Shield and a reverse Reflect around it to ensure that when the body dissolves, no Lifestream energy would escape." Shield and Reflect were thrown up around the mini tree before he had even finished that sentence. "Finally, I Haste the corpse, and Stop the area in between Shield and Reflect. Just in case." He cast the spells as he described the process.

"Once the setup is done, I have to keep casting Haste on the body, until it dissolves and subsequently hardens into a workable materia," he shot jolts of Haste at the tree intermittently. As Cloud and the others watched on, the tree slowly wilted, before bursting into Lifestream energy. The energy circled around its magical jail at accelerated speed, trying but failing to find a way to return to the Planet. Eventually, it settled down at the bottom of the Shield spell. It pooled together and became liquid. Then the liquid rapidly crusted over and became rough crystals that stuck together in a vague, circular shape. Finally, the texture smoothed over, becoming an orb. The energy within developed a soft glow - that of an active materia's.

The acceleration had not even taken ten seconds.

Sephiroth released all the time and protective spells he had placed around what was formerly a large tree. The newly formed materia dropped to the soft ground and rolled a short distance before coming to a stop near Sephiroth's foot. All eyes were on the glowing green materia, but there was a heavy, solemn silence.

"I did all that," Sephiroth continued, voice impassive, "not on trees, but on the bodies of our dead enemies... and comrades."

"What were you thinking?!" Zack' outburst caught everyone by surprise. "How could you even bring yourself do such a thing to the people who fought alongside you? Who gave their lives for you?! You could do it on the trees, couldn't you? Why didn't you do that, then?!"

Sephiroth said nothing at first. He spared Zack a glance, then bent down and picked up the materia he had just made. He held it out. "This is an Ice materia," he introduced. He unleashed a strong Blizzard spell at a nearby bush, icicles forming over its leaves immediately.

And the materia in his hand shattered into a thousand smithereens.

Lowering his hand, Sephiroth explained, "No lifeform is more endowed with Lifestream energy than humans. Yes, plants and animals would do. But they wouldn't last. I could not put the rest of the army at risk by using materia I knew to be defective," he turned to face Zack fully. "Can you see things from my point of view, Zack?"

"I can't," the SOLDIER flatly stated. "My comrades will always be my comrades, whether they're dead or alive. By stealing their respite and turning them into tools against their will..." He stopped abruptly, and took a deep breath. "Sorry. I need to calm down," he mumbled, before whipping around and heading in the direction of the beach. "We still need to find the black and white materia, right? It'll be faster if we split up. We'll meet back here or something... soon. Sorry, guys," were his final words before he broke off into a run.

The trio watched him go. Vincent was the first one to speak up. "The man is right, as disconcerted as he may be at the moment," he turned to look at Cloud and Sephiroth. "We should split up into two groups to speed up the search. Normally, I would be asking you," he nodded towards Sephiroth, "to go after your colleague, but that may not be the wisest choice at the moment. He affixed his eyes on Cloud. "Go after him, Cloud," he said.

Cloud did not move. After a short while, he looked directly at Vincent. "I'll go with Sephiroth," he said, firmly. Vincent stared at him with unconcealed surprise, and Cloud stared right back.

It did not take long for Vincent to overcome his shock and realise that Cloud was serious. "Are you sure that's the best thing to do?" He asked, worry evident in his tone.

"Maybe not," Cloud's voice was quiet, "...but I think... it would be the right thing to do."

Vincent allowed silence to be his reply. "All right," he acquiesced in time. "Three days," he declared. "We will split up and try to locate the materia for three days. Whether we are successful or not, we will meet back at the Ancient Temple after that."

"Three days?" Cloud did not know whether to laugh or cry at Vincent's strict condition. "Vincent, what if the black and white materia are at the Northern Crater or something? I don't know if we can make it there and back in a week even, much less three..."

"That is what the Seek materia is for, Cloud," Vincent interrupted, pointing at Cloud's materia pouch. "Go where the materia points you. Even if they do end up being very far away, I'm quite sure the Planet will be assisting us in our quest this time. She will find a way to move us there and back as soon as possible. At a critical time like this, I will not allow you to be out of my sight for any more days than three. Do you understand, Cloud?"

Vincent's sombre tone made Cloud snap to attention unconsciously. He understood. "I'm sorry, Vincent," he whispered. "But I promise you that I'll take care of myself. I'll come back. I promise."

"Do not let that become a burden to you, Cloud," Vincent shook his head. "We find each other in order to escape from loneliness. Surely your long life has taught you that, if nothing else." He stretched out his right hand. "I'll need a Seek materia, by the way."

A smile slowly blossomed on Cloud's face, as he reached out and dropped one of the Seek materia he had received from the Seers into Vincent's hand. "Thanks for always being there, Vincent."

"I will see you in three days, then," Vincent took the materia and nodded, turning around in a swirl of red. Before long, he had vanished into thin air.

Cloud let his gaze remain upon the area Vincent had last been standing on. Then he turned towards Sephiroth. "If the Bazookas are using what you used to accelerate materia growth... where do you suppose they're getting their dead bodies from?"

"The same place I got mine from, of course," Sephiroth answered smoothly. "Their fallen comrades and enemies. Whether or not they had their express approval."

Cloud looked at Sephiroth in the eye. "It must have hurt," he said, purposely leaving the subject ambiguous.

Sephiroth's only reply to that was a murmured laugh that sounded suspiciously like a sigh.

"I got my memories back," Cloud spoke up again. "I was right. I did know you." He paused. "But that was a long, long time ago." He shuffled uncomfortably on his feet, wondering why he was bringing it up. "Whatever. Let's go find those materia and get you guys back home, okay?" He was already reaching into his pouch and taking out his Seek materia. He turned around and pointed the materia towards where he could feel the sea breeze coming from.

"Cloud," the mercenary heard Sephiroth's voice from behind him.

"Yeah?"

"Were we friends?"

Cloud did not stop moving forward in an attempt to cast the Seek spell.

"You were my childhood hero," he admitted, "but we were never friends."

"...I see."

The Seek spell latched onto something, and Cloud started going in the direction he was being pulled towards.

"Were we enemies?" The next question came, unceremonious and quiet.

This time, Cloud did stop.

He turned around and glanced sidelong at the SOLDIER. "I don't know," his face was straight. "That depends on you?"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at Cloud's indeterminable words.

But his question never made it out from his lips, for in the next moment, the two chocoboes who had been fixtures in the background leapt towards Cloud in an impressive display of bird agility. They warked, kwehed and smothered the protesting mercenary with their fluffed up feathers of doom.

'Well,' thought the SOLDIER to himself, as he relished in the sight of a human being squashed by two birds, 'at least some things haven't changed.'

 

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4mar2009


	23. Chapter 23

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

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Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Three  
There is a moment when fears and dreams must collide.

 

"Well, anyway," Cloud was saying, as he picked yet another feather out from his hair, "we'll meet back here in three days as per Vincent's instructions. The materia is pointing us in the north-west direction. Seems pretty far... we're going to have to take the chocoboes."

The chocoboes - all calmed down and seated on the floor, warked happily.

Sephiroth was reaching into where he had last kept the map from the Mythril Mines. "I have a better idea," he said, and walked over while unrolling the parchment. He spread the map on the ground, much to Cloud's confusion. "The materia is mastered?" He asked.

Cloud glanced at the yellow orb. "Yes?"

"Good," Sephiroth pointed at the map. "That must mean it can Seek anywhere the Lifestream goes. In short, the entire surface of the planet. Try to direct the spell towards the map, to pinpoint the exact location it's trying to lead us to. If you can do that, we can save a lot of time by riding the chocoboes to the nearest airport and taking an airship to the location, instead of riding the chocoboes all the way to the destination."

The mercenary took a while to understand that. "You're right," he eventually said. "I guess they don't call you guys 1st Class SOLDIERs for nothing, huh?" His tone was light, but slightly bitter at the same time. Nevertheless, he had already positioned himself over the map and was concentrating on casting the spell on it.

"Will you ever tell me why you are not a SOLDIER, even though you have SOLDIER attributes?" Sephiroth asked.

"Probably not," Cloud mumbled. A beam of light shot out from the materia and slowly roved over the map.

The General stood quietly to a side while Cloud was focused on the spell. "We seem to have quite a bit of history between us," he supposed.

"I wouldn't deny that," the blond watched as the light from the orb slowly shrank around a particular area.

"Why did you not choose to go with Zack or Vincent?"

The light was now completely on the entire area of Corel. Including the ocean. "Vincent and I are the only ones who are familiar with the terrain of this world, so we'd naturally have to split up." He did not say anything about Zack.

"And going with me was the right thing to do?"

At first, there was nothing but a long stretch of silence. The light kept getting narrower, until it focused on a spot somewhere in Corel. Even then, it did not seem like Cloud was inclined to say anything. And just when Sephiroth thought he was never going to receive a reply, Cloud finally opened his mouth.

"I was wrong," the mercenary's soft voice was barely above a whisper. "About you. About a lot of things. I've always despised judgemental people. I guess that's because I was the most judgemental of them all, huh..."

Sephiroth was as impeccably expressionless as usual, but inside, he was frowning. "You knew me very well, then," he assumed, deciding to focus on what he could pick up from Cloud's rather incomprehensible babble.

The light finally stopped shrinking. It was pointing at a particular spot somewhere along the mountains surrounding Corel Area. "Why do you keep asking?" Cloud said, with his eyes still affixed on the map. "Does it really matter?"

At that, the General actually looked away. "I have always been alone," he eventually said. "Few are willing to find out more about the person beneath the facade Shinra has built for me. It does not inconvenience me in any practical way, but sometimes..." He trailed off suddenly, deciding that there was no need to elaborate further. "I was just curious about how you seem to understand me, when I do not even know you at this current point of my life. I apologise if I seem to be intruding."

By then, Cloud had finally deactivated the Seek materia, and he looked up from the map, meeting Sephiroth's eyes. "I thought I knew you very well too, but I think I was wrong about many things," he lowered his head slightly, but only for a short while. "I wasn't being fair to you. If Gaia hadn't stepped in, I wouldn't have escorted you here, and wouldn't even have bothered to consider taking on the Bazookas. Now that I step back and look at the bigger picture, I see what a dangerous game I was playing - putting the life of everything on the Planet at stake. That's why," he slightly to let the information sink in. "That's why I feel that this is the right thing for me to do. My responsibility."

Sephiroth said nothing in response. But it was clear from his demeanour that he understood Cloud's point.

"And you're not as lonely as you think," Cloud quipped. "You have Zack, remember?"

"Sometimes I wonder if he counts," Sephiroth's fond exasperation for the bubbly SOLDIER was apparent in his tone. "He is, after all, more or less everybody's best friend."

"True," Cloud said, while rolling up the map. "But, you know, you're not all that bad as a person. Sure, Shinra did a good job of setting you up as some kind of modern war hero, but you're not exactly doing anything to discourage that image." The blond wrinkled his nose slightly, as if he just remembered something unpleasant. "Or maybe your contract with Shinra forbids you from doing that or something. In that case, you'll just have to see what's more important to you, and act accordingly." The map was rolled and tied. Cloud gave Sephiroth a small smile. "If you want an equal, you'll have to make one."

"Make one," Sephiroth repeated, rather thoughtfully.

Cloud was already thinking about something else. "The Seek materia is pointing towards the mountain range in Corel. That area... if I remember correctly, and if the geography hasn't changed too much... there's a materia cave there. The Mako fountain has long since dried up, though, so the Bazookas aren't likely to be there. But then again, it doesn't seem likely that the black and white materia would be there, either..."

"If the Planet can use the Lifestream to pull people forward in time, I don't see why it can't use the same method to transport the two materia to anywhere it wants," Sephiroth reasoned. "That is, if the Seek materia is even reliable at all."

"You're right, but it's a chance we'll have to take," Cloud admitted in a mumbling undertone. "We'll ride the chocoboes back to Mideel, then catch an airship to Corel. Since the cave is at the back of a long line of mountains, the chocoboes will have to go with us as well. Any issues with that?" He asked. Sephiroth shook his head. "All right. Time to mosey," he turned around and gestured at the two chocoboes, who leapt up and followed him with happy chirps.

'I need to have a long talk with him one day about that moseying thing," Sephiroth could not help but think. Nevertheless, he followed, taking special care not to mosey, or anything like that.

x--

Once the duo reached the Corel Area, they booked the protesting chocoboes into stables at the Goldsaucer and continued their journey northwestward. Amazingly, they did not bump into either Vincent or Zack throughout their trip to Corel. It was quite a feat of nature, considering the Mideel airport was the closest to the Woodlands Area.

"Perhaps they have taken another route," Sephiroth suggested, when Cloud brought it up. "Remember that we have chocoboes to help us cross the sea. In any case, I do not think we need to be worried about those two very capable men. We do, however, need to find a way to get into the Corel region right now." He gestured at the heavily guarded and fortified palace-like structure that looked like it was carved out from the looming mountains. "If this is Corel, that is."

Cloud looked up at the fortifications with something akin to mild annoyance on his face. "I can't believe I've forgotten all about her." He put a palm on his forehead and sighed. "But that's all right. She'll let us pass, if she knows what's good for her..." The blond glanced around, eventually finding the security guardpost and marching purposefully towards it.

"It must be convenient to have so many friends in high places," Sephiroth commented wryly as he walked alongside the skulking mercenary.

"She's not my friend," Cloud was terse. He did not elaborate, for they had reached the guardpost by now. "Excuse me, my name is Ipsen, and I need to pass through the city with my companion. Please give us the necessary clearance. We won't take more than an hour to traverse to the other side."

The stern-looking guard, armed to the teeth with weaponry that Sephiroth had never seen before, gave the duo a surprised look. He quickly muttered something into a mouthpiece on the nearby wall. It did not take long for him to get a reply. After a short conversation, the guard nodded and hurried over to Cloud. "The Imperator will be here shortly."

"What? I didn't ask to see her." Cloud blinked. "I just need to go across the city!"

"I don't know, Lord Ipsen, I am merely relating the orders I have received," the guard shook his head. He gestured into the shaded area of the guard post. "Please, take a seat."

Cloud politely declined. He turned to Sephiroth. "Coralissimo is the world's biggest supplier of fossilised and clean energy at the moment. Technically, it covers the entire Corel Area, but the city where people actually stay is built right into the Corel mountains. The cave we're trying to reach is situated in the middle of some mountains - so that means we have no choice but to go through Coralissimo in order to get there." He ended his brief summary about the mountain city with a sigh. "You've probably read about Coralissimo in those books in Kalm, though."

"Yes, yes I have," Sephiroth agreed, and he sounded amused. "I have also read that their current ruler is always on the lookout for men to fill her harem. I wonder if that is the reason why you are so disinclined to meeting up with the lady?"

Cloud was positively sulking by now. "Of all the things to remember..." he grumbled. But he had no chance to explain anything, for a bell toiled in the distance, accompanied by the grating sound of heavy metal gates swinging open.

The duo both turned to the source of the sound. What had previous looked like a normal mountain wall now parted to reveal a bustling town within its natural protection. An entourage slowly emerged from the shadows of the archway of that entrance. In the centre of the group was a sedan that was carried by four men, and floridly dressed female attendants followed both in front and behind with feathered fans and elegant looking handheld canopies.

"I never fail to wonder how she gets so many servants together in such a short time," Cloud muttered to himself, his eyes never leaving the slowly approaching retinue. "She must sit in that sedan all day long, or something."

Needless to say, Sephiroth heard every word. With a smile, he said, "She's just in a hurry to see her prince charming again. Give the lady a chance."

Cloud shot Sephiroth a glare. He was going to say something, but what eventually came out was a groan. "Oh, goodness... I forgot all about you," he shook his head. Sephiroth's eyebrows went up in surprise. "Yes, she's always looking for ways to recruit more men for her harem, so to speak. And that means you're going to be one of her targets too, you know."

"I see," the General was surprisingly calm about the matter. "Since I am not too aware of the customs of this location, and since I am absolutely confident that you already have a brilliant excuse to divert her attention away from me... I shall keep silent while you carry out the negotiations," the man's smile was dazzling - for all the wrong reasons.

And he gave Cloud no time to protest. By the time Sephiroth had finished his declaration, the entourage was already standing right before them. The SOLDIER held an upturned hand out towards the entourage while looking at Cloud, as if inviting him to step forward to welcome the guest of honour. Cloud growled softly, but Sephiroth caught it. He merely laughed silently at the blond's dilemma.

"Oh, my dear Ipsen!" The Imperator of Coralissimo - a plump lady who looked to be in her forties - stepped out of the sedan and swiftly made her way towards the fidgeting Cloud, who bowed when she came close enough. "My, my, you're still as tall and charming as the day I first saw you. You must share with me your secret! Come along... I was just about to have tea..."

"I'm sorry, milady," Cloud straightened himself before the lady could drag him away, "but I'm here on official business today. The Goldsaucer owner has tasked me with the disposal of a dangerous criminal who has been terrorising his guests and rigging the games in his favour. I believe that there is a clause in the Corel Agreement that facilitates the execution of such a plan...?" He left his question open, waiting for a reply from the Imperator.

The lady finally turned her attention to Sephiroth. Her eyes widened. "What a fine specimen of a young man this is," she smiled coyly.

"Yes, but he's extremely psychotic and very, very dangerous," Cloud issued the warning in a semi-listless tone.

Sephiroth caught the Imperator's eye, and he smirked at her.

"How..." the lady was caught off-guard by the chilly smile, and she retreated slightly. "...how is it he's not behaving out of sorts now, though? If he's really so dangerous and everything..."

"Oh, it's a type of new mind-controlling drug that's been in development at the Goldsaucer for a while," Cloud shrugged. "It keeps the prisoner pliant, but the side-effects are rather strange - apparently it has a random chance of causing or increasing a destructive streak. And it only controls the person for a little while, so it would probably in your best interest to let us pass through as quickly as..."

A loud crash interrupted Cloud, and everybody turned to see Sephiroth slicing the tough looking guardpost into two with the Masamune. He then calmly kept the sword and said, "My apologies, but this building has been standing too close to me for too long, and I was getting uncomfortable. Personal space is so difficult to get nowadays." The dazzling smile was back, but nobody was close enough to observe it anymore.

With a pale face, the Imperator quickly barked out orders. Cloud and Sephiroth were being escorted through the city in no time at all. Although obviously terrified, the Imperator followed as well. "I worry for you, young man," she addressed Cloud from her spot in the shaded sedan. "What is so thrilling about being a mercenary? If you will agree to stay in this city..."

"We all have roles to play in our lives, milady," Cloud smiled in acknowledgement of her concern for him, "so I would appreciate if you do not try to stop me from fulfilling mine."

The lady gave Cloud a long, scrutinising stare. Finally, she huffed in exasperation. Right the next moment, however, she returned Cloud's smile. "Boys will be boys, I guess... but that's what I like about them," she winked. "My doors are always opened for you, dear Ipsen," the lady nevertheless was not ready to give up just yet.

Cloud laughed uneasily. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Oh, by the way," the lady waved towards an important-looking man who was accompanying the sedan but not carrying it. "Would you believe that I've gotten a new Chancellor for myself?"

"I would believe a lot of things about you, ma'am," Cloud admitted. He nevertheless turned to look at the man, who was looking back at him with a hard, flinty stare. "Pleasure to meet you, sir," he bowed slightly, but did not stop walking.

The man narrowed his eyes, but he bowed as well and said nothing.

"He has been of great help with the reorganisation of the city after the Great Disaster a few years ago. I don't know what I would have done without him!" The Imperator continued after the introduction, laughing demurely to herself behind a hand. "Technologically, the knowledge of my clan is unsurpassed, but when it comes to organisation..." She laughed softly again. "Let's just say I'm quite the bad judge of character, shall we? Swayed by emotions and outward appearances more than anything else..."

"You have your charms, Imperator," Cloud shrugged nonchalantly.

Instead of being offended by his standoffishness, the lady became more amused. She kept on going, saying, "It is a pity I can't show you the new solar panels we've managed to develop lately. Your friend... the other one - the one with the dark hair... I'm sure he would have loved to at least poke around at it once."

"Yes, Vincent would definitely love that," Cloud agreed. "If you like, I could send your invitation to him personally, when I next see him again."

"Oh, that would be wonderful!" The Imperator cheered. And the rest of the journey was carried out with mundane batter not unlike the conversation they just had.

Sephiroth only paid half a heed to what they were talking about. His attention was on the surroundings, and the people who accompanied them. They had assigned a few guards to watch him closely, so he was quite a distance behind the sedan and Cloud, who was beside it. From his rear position, he could observe many things.

Like how the Chancellor kept sneaking the occasional glare at Cloud when he thought the man was not looking.

The SOLDIER noted from the bits of pieces of the conversation that the Chancellor held a massive amount of power for someone who was new to town. He could not discern any animosity the lady Imperator had for her Chancellor by the way she spoke highly of him, but he knew too that women hid their secrets well. When the Imperator mentioned the Chancellor's wife, he ruled out the possibility of jealousy. So what could be causing the man to direct such intense glares at the mercenary, who did not even seem to know him, then?

All his rumination had to come to a stop, for they had arrived at the northern border of the town, which led out into the mountainous region overlooking the sea. Cloud went forward with a guard to open the door. While he was there, the Chancellor moved towards the Imperator's sedan and whispered something. Then he left quickly in a swish of robes.

Sephiroth watched him go.

"He is a powerful man, but his ulterior motives are even more powerful," the voice forced him turn his attention to the sedan, where it was coming from. The Imperator was in the sedan, looking straight ahead and not at him. "I play a game of high stakes with him, but he will not always win," continued the voice, which was definitely the Imperator's. "He is rallying his comrades for something unpleasant. My fear for what he has planned for my city is great, but there is a moment when fears and dreams must collide... Please, take care of Cloud for me."

If there was something else after that, it was drowned out by the sound of the groaning gates creaking open. Cloud and the guard returned to join the entourage for a while. "Thank you for your kindness, Imperator," said Cloud while bowing. "I will take the prisoner off your hands now."

The Imperator gestured, and the guards watching Sephiroth dispersed. Sephiroth walked forward to where Cloud was, but he gave the Imperator a fleeting sidelong glance when he passed by her sedan. With Sephiroth by his side, Cloud bowed again, and turned to exit the gates.

Just as the duo stepped out of the town, the lady called out, "Cloud."

The mercenary threw a questioning glance behind.

"I will always be on your side," she said, with a smile that was almost motherly.

And then the gates groaned shut, effectively cutting off communication between the two parties.

There was silence the dust that had been raked up by the gate doors slowly settled back down.

"How could you be so sure that she would let you pass by mentioning some agreement with Goldsaucer?" Sephiroth's question broke the silence. "I never read about anything like that in the books in Kalm."

"It's a secret agreement between the two regions for mutual benefit," Cloud replied. "If there were any dark secrets one region had to get rid of without alarming the citizens, the other region was to take care of it quietly. I mediated the agreement. Vincent and I were to be the only people who could execute it," was the brief explanation.

Sephiroth gave the city a backwards glance. "The Chancellor is up to no good."

Cloud blinked at him. "What makes you say that?"

"A little... well, an old, fat bird told me," the General shrugged, his sword already brandished. "Where are we now?"

"Err... this is the northmost tip of the Corel Area," Cloud was confused by the sudden change in topic, but nevertheless supplied. "The mountain range in front blocks access to the ocean that leads to the Icicle Area. And as you know, Coralissmo is behind us. The materia cave I was talking about is wedged somewhere between two mountains that form a 90 degree angle where they meet. Can't be too hard to find," he was pointing northwestward as he said that. "Somewhere there, I think."

The SOLDIER took all that information in with a passive face. "That means we are trapped in this valley with nowhere to run, short of flying," he concluded.

"Well..." Cloud was unable to figure out what Sephiroth was on about. Maybe this was why he never made it into SOLDIER. "That's one way of looking at it, yes..."

"Northwest, right?" Sephiroth asked, while moving towards said direction, his long sword gleaming in the soft rays of the evening sun. "What does that Seek materia say?"

Cloud was reminded that he was still holding onto the materia. He took it out and activated it. He expected the materia to glow and send a beam of light towards the northwestern direction, and it did.

For a while.

All of a sudden, the materia went berserk, beaming with a light so bright, Cloud was forced to drop it. Then the single ray of light erupted into thousands of smaller rays, sending forth their luminance in a myriad of different directions. Cloud was dumbstruck at the reaction he was getting from the materia. He quickly retreated away from it, drawing his sword and joining the SOLDIER, who was looking in another direction.

As Cloud's eyes tried to follow the trajectory of all the rays of lights, he saw that they pointed to shadowy figures that had started to swarm up on the mountaintops. Airships of various sizes took to the air with the sinking sun as their backdrop, and they were numerous enough to cast long and ominously dark shadows over the duo who were standing in the valley - trapped, as it were.

"So, since the Seek materia is supposed to find the black and white materia for us, I suppose this means that the Bazookas have them?" Cloud tried to exercise his faculty of reason as he tore off his old but sturdy cloak and threw it over the scintillating materia lying on the ground. Covered by the thick garb, the bright rays of light immediately stopped interfering with the landscape, and Cloud could see clearly that the enemies had them surrounded in all directions. "...I'm not sure if we can handle so many people at once..."

Sephiroth said nothing. Not that Cloud had been expecting him to, but there was something about the silence that disturbed him. He turned around slightly to regard his companion.

He could not contain his shock when he saw black feathers.

The man was walking forward - towards the centre of the valley, his long silver hair and the single black wing that had spontaneously sprouted on his right shoulder swaying rhythmically from side to side with each step he took. The Masamune now emitted a high-pitched wail every time it made a movement in the air. It sounded like the deafening cries of a thousand slain souls. And every step he took, tendrils of Lifestream followed.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud cried out. But the SOLDIER did not respond. He kept walking forward, until he was quite a distance away from Cloud and the city gates.

The Lifestream that was seemingly ebbing out from his feet slowly darkened into inky black, before dissolving into nothingness. That sight sent an electrifying jolt of warning through Cloud, and he tried to run forward - to stop the SOLDIER from whatever he was planning to do - to no avail. As soon as Cloud moved, a blast of hot air rushed out from where Sephiroth was, deterring Cloud from progress and even pushing him further back.

Cloud watched, helpless, as the one-winged angel stopped walking suddenly, held his hands out, and soared majestically to the skies. When he reached a height that put him almost on par with the legions of Bazookas who were in an ambush on the mountaintops, his entire body burst into brilliant white light, obscuring him from view and forcing everybody to cover their eyes for fear of being burned by the intensity.

The masamune kept on howling. But there was no one who was able to understand it.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
26may2009


	24. Chapter 24

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Four  
You are not the person I thought you were.

 

When Cloud was finally able to uncover his eyes, he realised that the ground was shaking. Ignoring that, he quickly made his way to where he last saw Sephiroth and glanced up at the slowly darkening sky. The SOLDIER was nowhere to be seen from where Cloud stood.

Then there was a big explosion. A huge chunk of rock broke off from a mountaintop somewhere and tumbled dramatically down into the valley.

Clicking his tongue in frustration, Cloud turned around to try to locate the location of the blast. Upon seeing an area completely smothered with smoke and sand, he headed there as quickly as he could. When the dust settled, he could see a dark speck circling the sky above the area. The dark speck was shooting beams of light which Cloud recognised to be elemental spells at certain areas on the mountain tops. Even at this distance, Cloud could hear the terrified screams of the Bazooka troops, who were trying to defend themselves - to no avail.

"Sephiroth!!" Cloud shouted up at the sky. "Sephiroth, don't fall for Gaia's tricks! We're supposed to be finding the black and white materia, not having a showdown with the Bazookas!!"

"Ah, so he shares the same name with the author of that report?" A voice from behind Cloud alerted him to the presence of someone else. The mercenary turned around and pointed his sword at the person.

It was the Chancellor.

"Chancellor?" Cloud frowned and tilted his head to a side. Above the duo, the sounds of explosions and screaming kept right on going. It did not take the blond long to figure out what was going on. He relaxed slightly, but did not lower his weapon. "You are with the Bazookas," Cloud stated, the light dawning. "You provide them with finances and energy through your connections with the world's largest clean power supplier."

"Charmed," the Chancellor bowed his head slightly. He then made a gesture, and all of a sudden, legions of armed men dropped down and popped up from nowhere to surround Cloud. "You are the immortal Cloud Strife, who has lived from since the time of AVALANCHE."

Cloud was busy assessing the situation. He wondered what he could do to get rid of this large army at once without having to send them all back to the Lifestream. He had no idea what he could do. He was in a terrible pinch indeed. "I'm Cloud Strife, yes," he admitted, deciding that he could humour the guy to buy more time to think, "but I'm not immortal. I just happen to have a very slow metabolism."

The Chancellor's face was grave and somewhat angry-looking. "You've caused more than one of my comrades to fall in this war, and by all rights I should have you executed here once and for all, but..." the man trailed off, then a sickening smile slowly took over his face. "...we have your uses for you. You're going to be our key to immortality. When we all have never-ending life, nothing on this Planet will be able to stop us from changing it for the better. Not even the so-called Seers... not even the Planet herself!"

"Changing it for the better?" Cloud found himself absurdly irked. "And what makes you think the Planet needs or even wants your help?"

The other man shrugged. "I'm not here to discuss such superficial matters with you, Cloud Strife." Having said that, he lifted a hand in signal, and the army of Bazookas readied their weapons and materia. "Will you come with us peacefully, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?"

'Well, at least this guy's straight to the point...' Cloud thought to himself. There was really no way he could get out of this unscathed without seriously injuring someone. "I've told you and I'll tell you again - I'm neither immortal, nor do I have any secrets to share with you on that subject. You'll just be wasting your time."

"Why don't you let us be the judge of that?" The stern-faced man snapped his fingers, and immediately his men roared into action.

There was another roaring, however. One that came from above. Before any of the Bazookas could get their hands on Cloud, a large slab of rock slammed into their paths and interrupted their plans. Even the Chancellor was shocked at the sudden turn of events, staggering to catch his balance from the quaking that the large fallen rock caused.

Cloud was surprised too, but being a seasoned warrior he took next to no time at all to recover. Not waiting to be told, he immediately slipped away into the cloud of dust that had surfaced when the large slab of rock crashed down. The army that surrounded him were far too many to simply evade, so he leapt onto the boulder and used it as foothold to jump even higher. Leaving the confused Bazookas behind without a second look back, he scaled the mountain cliff with practised ease - towards the peak.

As he got closer to the top, the strong winds started to blow him off course. He found a sturdy looking outcrop and perched on top of it, thrusting his large sword deep into the nearby rock wall to help him maintain his balance. Directly above him, Sephiroth was charging a fire spell at a troop of Bazookas who were desperately trying to hit the SOLDIER with everything they had in their arsenal - an exercise in futility if there ever was one. The Lifestream deflected everything they threw in his path.

It was utterly bizarre for Cloud to watch Gaia protect the man who once tried to suck all its lifeblood out from it, but now was not the time for such poetic ruminations. He fired a Thunder at the hovering man, making sure to just barely miss, as all he wanted to do was to catch the man's attention. It worked, for Sephiroth was distracted from his spell charging. He lowered his glance from the Bazookas to Cloud, who happened to be standing right below them.

"Don't do it!" Cloud shouted, for the howling winds were drowning out his voice at this altitude. "It's not your place or duty to interfere with the wars of this time period!"

The shouting was being heard by the Bazooka troopers as well. The men traded stares with each other, confusion evident on their faces. Sephiroth, on the other hand, showed no indication that he had even heard Cloud. His expression was perfectly blank, and there was no sign of life in his glowing green eyes at all.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Sephiroth turned away from Cloud to look at the Bazookas again; the interrupted fire spell back to being charged - and this time, at a faster speed. Cloud had no time to even react. All he could do was watch as Sephiroth directed the powerful spell towards the mountain peak, and listen as the winds carried anguished cries of pain to his ears.

The cliff above the outcrop Cloud was standing on shook with a low rumbling. Smashed rocks dribbled down from the mountain top, creating several small waterfalls of sand, forcing Cloud to cover his eyes until most of the sand had been blown away.

When he next opened his eyes, Sephiroth was standing in front of him at the extreme edge of the same outcrop. Cloud had not even heard him land. The taller man had the same blank look on his face, and the Lifestream still accompanied him. They stared at each other for a few long moments, until Cloud broke the silence with a soft murmur.

"You can hear me, can't you?" He asked. Sephiroth made no reply. And as for the Lifestream, it kept on swaying. "...because Gaia wouldn't stop to talk to me in the middle of a crucial mission..." Cloud sighed. "Sephiroth... I'm tired of asking why this has to happen. Your comrades are important to you - you'd rather suffer than see them suffer. That's why you let Gaia do what she want. But you know what?" The mercenary narrowed his eyes. "I'd do the same for my comrades. And from since the moment you were pulled into this mess... you're my comrade too."

The SOLDIER said nothing, but he did not move to continue slaying the rest of the Bazookas either.

"It's not right for you to bear the entire burden for this whole matter," Cloud continued, since Sephiroth was apparently disinclined to speak. "In fact, you've already done more than enough. Let me do the rest. Even heroes need some time off to recharge, right?"

Suddenly, the Lifestream twisted into action, weaving its way towards Cloud until it lapped at his feet.

'Not hero,' said it. 'Not human.'

'Not from the Planet.'

'Monster.'

Cloud could feel his blood freeze. Soon after, however, it started to boil. He was about to unleash a nasty tirade that could probably rival one of Cid's torrential tongue-lashings when his tea arrived at the table lukewarm, when, as suddenly as it came towards him, the Lifestream vanished.

Just like that.

To be precise, the Lifestream had shivered, then receded back to where it was emanating from - the ground beneath Sephiroth. Finally, it dissipated completely, taking along with it the eeriely blank look on Sephiroth's face. The SOLDIER blinked once, twice. Life returned to his eyes, and he found himself face to face with a rather distraught Cloud.

"You may think that I don't actually know what's going on when the Lifestream takes over," Sephiroth started, slowly but purposefully, "but in actual fact, I do remember vague details. Initially I simply supposed that my war-torn past had returned to haunt me in my dreams, but now that my function here has been revealed, I know better." The SOLDIER lowered his glance to look at his sword. "You paint an all-too-good picture of me. In that aspect, I suppose Gaia knows me better than you do. It's not just for my comrades, Cloud. It's not as beautiful as you make it out to be. You know that I am a warrior. I live to fight. I fight to live. I am nothing without war. Gaia was just trying to give that to me. It wasn't entirely one-sided, Cloud. I knew what I was doing," he smiled wryly, "and I allowed it. In the eyes of many, I am indeed the monster they make me out to be."

"No!" Cloud's shout - louder than the wailing winds, made Sephiroth raise his head to look at him. "Monsters don't look back at the things they've done and feel sorry for them! Monsters don't sacrifice themselves for their friends! Yeah, I'll admit even I once thought you were nothing but a monster Shinra created to fight their dirty wars, but you are not the person I thought you were! Give us some credit, why don't you?! Did we go through this entire journey together for nothing? Are we comrades on your terms only? You try to walk out of the shadow of your past, yet you're the one still clinging on to it the most! If you really are a bloodthirsty killer, then I'll gladly let you go ahead and eliminate everyone in this area - including me! But are you or not? Tell me what you want! Tell me the truth!"

For the first time in Cloud's life, he saw Sephiroth looking truly astonished, even if it was only for a brief second. The General then allowed his face to melt into tired resignation, with a fond smile decorating the usually strained line of his lips. "Your honesty and perception is impressive, Cloud," said the man sincerely, although he did not elaborate. "You must be the friend I've always needed." The Lifestream had returned sometime between Cloud's outburst and Sephiroth's silence. It now slowly encircled the man again, and he was doing nothing to stop its progress.

"Sephiroth..." Cloud opened his mouth to say something. He was interrupted in mid-sentence.

"But thousands have already fallen to these bloodied hands," there was surrender in Sephiroth's voice. "What's a few thousand more?"

The single black wing that had never quite gone away during their conversation now spread wide open once more, flapping majestically and sending its owner into the air with a powerful jet.

Cloud allowed his mind no time to question the situation. He pulled his sword out from the face of the mountain and quickly went after Sephiroth. Although he could not fly like the SOLDIER could, the Float materia helped him stay in the air for longer periods of time, which he used to his advantage by leaping as far as he could from mountain top to mountain top. From what he could see, Sephiroth was most probably headed for the concentration of Bazooka troopers who had given up their positions on the peaks to gather at the feet of the mountains instead. Cloud had to get there before him.

Belatedly, the mercenary noticed the wrecked bits of several airships scattered across the valley. It seemed like Sephiroth had made short work of those vehicles as well. The sheer power of the man was awe-inspiring indeed. It was no wonder the faces of the Bazooka troopers were all blanched beyond belief.

Cloud hasted himself with a top level spell, shooting past Sephiroth and arriving at the Bazooka army first. The Chancellor was there, and he gave the mercenary a smug, challenging glare, but Cloud had no time to consider what the man could possibly be up to. He put all his concentration into the Enemy Skill materia he had fished out from his pouch, and within a split second, fired up the strongest and widest Big Guard barrier he could muster in the circumstances.

And just in time, for immediately after that, meteoroids began to rain down on the valley, pounding large boulders into dust and sending the young Bazookas troopers into terrified screaming. The meteoroids slammed hard against the barrier Cloud had thrown up, and it took all his mental strength to keep the shield up. Loud sounds of destruction reverberated through the mountain pass, but within the barrier, there was calm. The flustered shrieks of the Bazookas slowly faded away when it became apparent that none of them were hurting. They all turned their attentions instead to the man who was protecting them.

Cloud paid only half a heed to the suspicious murmurings of the Bazookas behind him. As soon as the last meteoroid struck the barrier, he cancelled the spell and stumbled, propping himself up with his sword. He shook his head to clear it, quickly turning upwards to face the SOLDIER who was now flying around in graceful loops. Soon, however, the man landed - tendrils of Lifestream at his feet as usual.

"You don't get it!" Cloud immediately pointed his sword at Sephiroth, agitation evident in his voice. "You're not protecting anyone or anything like this! How can you, when you're slowly destroying yourself from inside?! How do you protect someone else when you can't even protect yourself?! When you lose the last thing that chains you to the present... what then?" Cloud paused to grit his teeth. "Are you going to let someone else control your life forever on some noble sounding pretext? Shinra? Gaia? Or something even worse?"

As he paused there, he saw that the Lifestream was slowly slipping away again, indicating Sephiroth's regain of control.

And Cloud simply continued, quietly this time, saying, "I've gone through so much... lost so many things... even myself! The pain of losing something that can never be retrieved... the guilt of knowing you could have done better but never being able to have a chance again... sometimes you don't realise these things until it's too late... and I wouldn't wish that on anyone, Sephiroth," he looked meaningfully at the SOLDIER. "Not even my worst enemy."

The hard, blank look on Sephiroth's face had softened by now. "Cloud..." he started to say something, a frown between his brows.

"What do you want, Sephiroth?" Cloud gave him no chance to speak. "Beneath all that's been said and done so far... what do YOU want to do?"

Sephiroth did not say anything for a while. Finally, he sighed and relaxed slightly. The single wing on his back quietly dispersed into dark feathers, falling into a heap at his feet. Facing Cloud, he started, "I..."

Whatever he was about to say was cut short when he saw Cloud suddenly falling unceremoniously to the ground. Behind the collapsed Cloud was the Chancellor, who held a large, empty syringe in his hand. The grave looking man quickly tossed the syringe away. Not waiting to celebrate his victory, he reached out to grab the fallen Cloud by one of his shoulders. At the same time, he activated a green materia with his free hand. And before Sephiroth could swing the masamune at the man, he was gone.

Taking Cloud along with him.

"Exit materia..." Sephiroth cursed under his breath. He had to give chase immediately. The spell trail an Exit materia left was feeble and vanished easily. They could literally be anywhere on the Planet now, so there was not a moment to lose. But even as he made to take a step forward, the large troop of Bazookas took up their positions and surrounded him from all directions, forming a thick wall of bodies that would take a while to cut down. It was almost like they could read his mind, and his next actions.

Sephiroth was inexplicable angry. Cloud had been, in his own way, trying to protect the last vestiges of Sephiroth's sanity, seared and chipped beyond repair through his long years of playing the glorified mass murderer. He had never met someone who saw so precisely through him; understood him as if Cloud had known him for untold centuries instead of mere days. And then suddenly, just like that, the enemy whisked him away from right under Sephiroth's nose.

Someone was going to pay for this, the General decided, his dark aura terrifying the troopers nearby, sending them tumbling backwards. But before he could drive the humming masamune through the thick of the troopers, a horn blare from above jolted him from his thoughts and attracted the attention of everyone else as well.

"Do we need some help here?" A disembodied voice asked. Sephiroth recognised the voice to be that of Coralissimo's Imperator immediately. "Yes? Right, I thought so... By the way, friend of Ipsen, the gate's open for you!" The Imperator's grin was apparent from her voice alone. Parts of the air in the sky shimmered, and several airships suddenly popped out from seemingly nowhere. "No playing rough on my turf, people! And any enemy of my potential harem is an enemy of mine!" She declared, and the airships dove towards the ground, firing rapidly at the ducking Bazookas at the same time.

'I hope she didn't mean me,' Sephiroth had to fight hard to control the twitch that was developing under his left eye. Quickly snapping back into reality, he took advantage of the chaos to dash towards Coralissimo gates, which, true to the Imperator's words, were opened. Sprinting through the city, he did not bother to look over his shoulder to see how the skirmish was faring.

He had bigger fish to fry. Oh yes he did.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
12jul2009


	25. Chapter 25

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Five  
Time changes everything.

 

Zack tied the last of the tranquillised men onto the pillar and stepped back to admire his handiwork.

When Vincent and him had arrived at the location the Seek materia had pointed them to, they found no materia of the black or white kind. Instead, there was a small nest of surprised rebels, who quickly and effectively got themselves ready for a sudden attack from the enemy.

Not that Vincent and Zack had been trying to attack them, but the Bazookas were having none of their 'excuses'.

Thankfully, Vincent had a magazine of tranquillisers ready. He sedated most of the rampaging Bazookas without much difficulty, whereas Zack took care of the rest. After that, they tied the unconscious men onto the pillars of the cave they were in, to prevent a re-enactment of what had just happened when they woke up.

After that brief review in his head, Zack now turned to look at Vincent. "This wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" He asked. "The Seers said the Seek spell will direct us to the black or white materia."

Vincent was reloading his gun. At first, it did not seem like he was even paying attention to Zack. After he slid the ammunition into position with a sharp click, however, he addressed Zack in a sombre voice, saying, "That is what we had been led to believe, yes. Instead of finding the black or white materia for us, the Seek spell directed us towards a Bazooka hideout. Now, this can only mean two things. One, is that the Bazookas have the materia. The other, is that we have been deceived by the Seers."

Zack scratched the back of his head with a sigh. "Given their track record, I'm inclined to believe the latter. The Seers want to vanquish the Bazookas and will stop at nothing to achieve their aim. But... maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt. So... I guess we'll have to either wake one of these guys up to ask about the materia, or ransack the place ourselves, huh?"

"That won't be necessary," Vincent replied, while looking at the Seek materia in his hands. "The Seek spell is completely silent now. If it was really designed to locate the materia for us, it would still be guiding us until we find it. This silence can only mean that..."

"That the Seers purposely made the Seek spell lead us here, so that we can clean the place up for them," Zack narrowed his eyes unhappily. "That's not what was supposed to happen. They promised Cloud they'd let him handle this!"

Vincent kept the yellow orb. He turned on his heels and walked towards the exit of the room without a second thought. "So they did. However, speculation will get us nowhere. I am sure the Seers will be more than happy to provide us with a much clearer picture. Once I get my hands on them, that is," there was a hard, dangerous glint in Vincent's eyes as he said this. "And I've arranged with Cloud to meet back at the Woodlands Area in three days time, anyway. One more day left now."

Zack had been following the ex-Turk. He, too, saw no reason why they should remain in the enemy's hideout any longer. At the mention of Cloud's name, however, the SOLDIER stopped walking abruptly. He had been thinking about the boy, but things had been moving along too fast for him to ask any questions. And then Sephiroth had to go and drop the bomb on Project War Blocks. Quickly driving that thought out of his mind, he said, "That would mean that Cloud and Sephiroth are doing battle with the Bazookas now too, wouldn't it?"

In front, Vincent paused in his step as well. He resumed walking soon enough, however. This time, with a quicker pace. "You're right," he mumbled. "That would certainly be the case."

Zack continued walking as well, and soon the duo were out of the stuffy cave and basking in the rays of the sun. They had been directed to the archipelago of Wutai by the Seek materia. Most of the Wutai continent had always been a desert, even during Zack' time period. Apparently nothing much had changed from his time on this island.

As Vincent faced the low-lying area below the outcrop they stood on and considered their fastest route back to the Woodlands area, Zack turned towards him. "How long have you known Cloud?" Came the sudden question.

Derailed from his line of thought, Vincent blinked at Zack in split second surprise. He then schooled his features into nonchalance. "Do you perhaps mean to ask, how long has Cloud been living?"

The SOLDIER pursed his lips, slightly annoyed yet relieved at Vincent's perceptiveness. Then he threw both his hands up into the air. "Yes. Yes, I'm just curious. You can't expect me not to. Did you know, that just a few days ago... a few days before I got pulled forward in time, that is... I went for dinner with Cloud at Sector 5? He was as shy and good-natured as usual; didn't talk much but when he did, it was always about the kind of cadet training he was receiving. I was telling him about SOLDIER, because he wanted so much to become one and I was afraid he wasn't thinking clearly enough about what he was getting into. And then a few days later, I land in the future... and not just any future - a few /thousand/ years in the future... but wait, that's not all! My shy and good-natured cadet is here too! With glowy eyes! And super-strength! And the demeanour of a man who's gone where no man has gone and seen what no man has seen! Good grief! Now that I think about it, I'm unbelievably surprised at how I've managed to keep my mouth shut about it until now!" Zack slapped his own forehead.

Vincent merely watched the man as he went on berating himself.

"So anyway, back on topic," Zack sighed, after taking a short while to collect his thoughts. "Let me answer that question for you. Obviously Cloud has been living for a few thousand years. But here's what I really wanted to know... Why? How did that happen?

"Will that change anything?" Vincent mumbled.

Zack was taken aback by the unexpected reply. "What?"

"Will my answer to that question make Cloud any less of a friend to you?" Vincent elaborated. When no answer seemed forthcoming, he continued, "If you must know the details about Cloud's longevity, you would do best to ask him yourself. But do not think that Cloud is trying to obscure information from you if he chooses not to tell. In all honesty, I don't know everything myself, either. What's done cannot be undone, no matter how many times the Planet messes with the time. What I can tell you, however, is that it was not pleasant. But Cloud has matured. He no longer tries to pretend like the past never existed. Instead, he's accepted everything that has happened and has determined to carry on living, fully prepared for the consequences." There was a faraway look in Vincent's eyes as he said this. "And he still calls you his best friend," the man added, almost like it was an afterthought.

Zack simply stared at Vincent - almost to the point of scrutinising. "I don't intend to probe, or invade Cloud's right to keep his life to himself," he started, his tone cautious to a fault, "but when I look at him - the Cloud now, that is... I can't help but feel like something went terribly wrong somewhere." He paused. Then sighed. "I just wanted to know... what I can do to make it better. I've lost friends and comrades unnecessarily to mindless skirmishes before, and the sense of helplessness that comes after that... the feeling that if only I could have done better... protected them from the darkness they were fighting... it eats me up from inside out, you know?" Zack gave a dry laugh, a smile of resignation on his face. "I mean, I know Cloud's a tough little cookie, but still... times changes everything, yah?"

"He didn't go through it alone," Vincent's soft voice interrupted Zack, who blinked at him. "Whatever it was that went wrong in his life, he didn't have to endure it by himself."

For a while after that, it was just the two of them staring at each other.

Then Zack smiled - a happier smile this time. "I guess that's what I wanted to know the most," he said. "Ah... we should probably start going back soon, if we want to make it in time for three days, huh?" His smile became a grin. "I'm still not entirely convinced, mind you, but I know my priorities. And the long walk here has certainly made me calm enough to face the boss again..." he trailed off, face darkening slightly at the thought of having to broach the topic about the Wutai War again with Sephiroth. Soon, however, a look of resolve crossed over his features, and he started down the path leading back to lowland. "Thanks a bunch, for taking care of Cloud," he said, with his back turned.

But Vincent understood the import of Zack' words. "No," the man whispered under his breath. "Thank YOU."

The tension had long since dissipated. And the two warriors began their journey back to Woodlands Area - where the story had started, and where it would hopefully come to an end.

x--x

When Vincent and Zack made it back to the Woodlands Area, the upper parts of the Ancient Temple was already visible through the canopy of the untouched forest. Vincent was surprised. It must have been centuries since he saw the temple in clear sight from such a long distance. He had a bad premonition, and without warning Zack, took off at full speed in the direction of the towering ziggurat.

He heard Zack shout something from behind, but ignored him because he knew the man was fast enough to keep up with him. As he whisked his way through the forest, he could sense a magical thrumming in the air. It was similar to the kind of sensation he got whenever he stood inside an Exit Glyph. This meant that someone had surrounded the entire Woodlands Area, or at least a large portion of it, with some materia.

'Dispel, most probably,' thought Vincent to himself. But he was not going to think too much about that for now. It was to his relief, however, that he neither met nor sensed anybody in the area besides Zack. On the other hand, it could also mean that the people who had done this were all already inside the temple. One final leap with a strong burst of energy later, he was at the feet of the temple, looking up at the stone monument with something akin to aghast.

It had not been evident from the long distance off, with all the trees obscuring his vision, but Vincent now saw that someone had used an extremely high level fire spell on the entire front part of the building. The entrance had melted and was now a mound of something else on the floor. The area around the hole that had been made was scorched charcoal black.

"That's a pretty sight," Zack whistled semi-appreciatively. "Kinda looks like the time Sephiroth burned a hole through Hojo's lab during one of his routine tests..." the SOLDIER caught himself as he said that. "Oh boy... don't tell me Sephiroth did this?"

Vincent narrowed his eyes. "I hadn't thought of that possibility," he admitted. "I was thinking that the Bazookas might have found this place. But the temple has always been under Gaia's protection... now that you mention it, it seems far more likely that Sephiroth and Cloud were behind this attack, although..." the man stared at the large, gaping hole that led into the temple proper. "...they didn't have to do this if they wanted get inside. What could have happened...?"

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Zack was walking carefully towards the charred entrance, his weapon already drawn. "And we shouldn't dismiss the possibility that the Bazookas could have done this. After all, if they could find project war blocks, I see no reason why they couldn't have found some other stuff Sephiroth had written to use for themselves."

"You are right," Vincent, too, drew his weapon. "We cannot be too careful. Whatever the case, we won't find out anything until we investigate this closer." He stepped in line with Zack, and they approached the destroyed entryway together.

When he was at a close enough distance, he found his olfactory senses being assaulted with the strong smell of something burning. This, he credited to the pile of steaming, melted rocks that had gathered in a pool at the floor in front of them. He activated a random command materia and threw it in, letting the bright glow light up the path for them.

The materia landed on a blackened floor. The walls of the passageway were also smoothly charred to a perfect shade of midnight black.

Beside Vincent, Zack whistled again. "Definitely smells like Sephiroth," he remarked. "That fire spell I was mentioning about just now? It not only burned a hole through the lab - it burned right through the lab and the /other/ rooms behind it, all the way until it burst out from the other side of the Shinra building in a pretty display of sparks and fireworks. I think the president banned Hojo from Sephiroth for a while after that. Man, that guy creates legends even when there's no war around," Zack chuckled.

Vincent had walked in to pick up the materia by now. He willed it to glow brighter, so that they could see further. The entire passageway appeared to be in the same colour. And the smell of burnt matter did not disappear as Vincent walked further into the passage. "Something must have happened," there was worry on the man's face. "Something bad enough to garner a reaction that only Hojo managed to get from Sephiroth."

Zack promptly stopped grinning, sobering up in a split second. "You're right," the SOLDIER mumbled, when the implications behind Vincent's words finally sank in. "By the Planet... you're right...!"

"Let's go," Vincent commanded softly, but with determination.

As the duo slowly made their way through the temple interior in search of the throne room, they found more things. Traps had been triggered, and then mercilessly burned and cut down. Inapposite rocks were strewn all over the floor of the passageways, likely the shattered remains of stone guardians who had to face the wrath of a rampaging SOLDIER. Although tedious, it was not difficult for Vincent and Zack to eventually locate the throne room. All they had to do was follow the trail of destruction, which ended in a lonely corridor of glittering walls. On one of the walls was a charred opening which looked very much like the entrance of the temple.

Zack dashed forward quickly, and Vincent followed close behind. They stepped through the opening just in time to see Sephiroth holding one of the Seers at sword point. "Sephiroth!" Zack shouted. The General made no movement to indicate that he had heard Zack. Zack moved to go further in, but almost tripped over something on the floor. Looking down, he saw that it was yet another Seer, who had been knocked unconscious. The man gritted his teeth and faced his superior again. "Sephiroth, stop it! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Finding out where they've taken Cloud to," this time, Sephiroth replied, and his answer made both Zack and Vincent perk up in attention. The General narrowed his eyes at the Seer in front of him. "Speak, if you know what's good for you."

"Wait, wait, hold it!" Zack shot forward and stood in front of the Seer, drawing his sword to parry Sephiroth's sword aside if need be. "What do you mean? Explain yourself first! We're not on a battlefield here! Remember what they always teach at cadet school? Keep your swords trained only at the enemy!"

Sephiroth eyebrow twitched slightly; whether with irritation or anger, nobody would ever find out. He did, however, lower his sword and turn his head so that he glared at the Seer who was hiding behind Zack from the side of his eyes. "These people deceived us into believing that we were going after the black and white materia, when they were actually leading us into Bazooka territory."

Zack lowered his sword as well. It looked like Cloud and Sephiroth had fallen hook, line, and sinker for the Seers' trick too. "Same here," he said, "but what's this about Cloud being taken away?"

"The Bazookas have him," Sephiroth's expression was pained for a split second. "And Gaia isn't too happy about that," he said, while taking a purposeful step forward, so that he was closer to Zack and the Seer. "Since the Seers could use the Seek materia to find out where the Bazookas are, I'm sure they can somehow re-calibrate it to look for Cloud."

"Just a minute, Sephiroth!" Zack lifted his sword again, trying to process the new information while dealing with his colleague. But he found that his mind could only concentrate on one thing. "Cloud's gone?!"

"Took you long enough to figure that out," Vincent's grumbling voice sounded out from somewhere near the sidelines. The sound of metallic boots scrunching on the gravel floor alerted them to the fact that Vincent was approaching. "Unbelievable," Vincent said to Sephiroth, when he came close enough to stare at him. "The Bazookas managed to kidnap Cloud in your presence?"

The tone was slightly acerbic and perhaps even accusing, but Sephiroth thought nothing of it but to say, "I was busy. Or should I say, Gaia was busy with me," he frowned at a spot somewhere above Vincent's right shoulder. Then he returned his attention to Vincent. "But I do take responsibility for losing your comrade to the enemy. Which is why I'm trying to find out where he is now."

All that said, the General stalked closer to the Seer again. This time, Zack did not try to stop him. He was looking at the ground, trying to unravel what he had just heard into some logical semblance of coherence. The Seer trembled so hard he fell to the ground. "I don't know where he is!" The man blurted out. "All we wanted to do was to get rid of the Bazookas! Those were Gaia's last instructions to us before we handed the black and white materia over to the two mercenaries!"

"That was the deal, yes," Sephiroth agreed, raising his sword and pointing it at the Seer once more. "But you could have just told us, couldn't you? And now you've managed to get Gaia angry as well. Better tell us how to find Cloud before she decides to do something dire."

"How can you tell how Gaia is feeling?" Vincent asked in bemusement.

Sephiroth's glance flickered over to the older man for a second. "I let her into my head, didn't I? And now she's screaming for me to find Cloud again, or else." The General sighed. "Apparently, the Bazookas have done something to keep even Gaia from finding out where Cloud is."

Vincent tilted his head to a side. "What makes you think the Seers would know something even the Planet doesn't?"

"Honestly?" Sephiroth shook his head, "It doesn't matter if they know anything or not. Since they chose to deceive us, they should have been prepared for the consequences," the man lifted his sword, and an eerie glow began to emanate off the silvery blade. "This will be the last time I'm asking you," Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. "Where is Cloud?"

"He is at Round Island," came an answer, not from the cowering Seer before Sephiroth, but from somewhere near the abyss where the thrones were usually situated. From the shadow of a large rock, the Great Seer shifted out with a tired look on his face. "Or should I say... that is the final stronghold of the Bazookas that we know of. If there is anywhere they could have brought him to without Gaia even knowing, then that must be it."

There was a pause, wherein the three warriors simply stared at the Great Seer in an attempt to ascertain the verity of his words. Then Sephiroth lowered his sword and kept it. "Thank you," he nodded in acknowledgement at the Great Seer. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?" He leered at the Seer who was still collapsed in front of him. "Don't think you've gotten away just yet, though," the SOLDIER warned. "Gaia's still angry."

While relieved that Sephiroth was not going to kill the people who held the key to sending them back home, Zack was also worried about Cloud, and angry at the Seers for lying. Nevertheless, once Sephiroth's attention was back on him and Vincent, the SOLDIER asked, "Where's Round Island?"

Before Sephiroth could reply, Vincent said, "An island north-east of where Midgar used to be. Hardly anyone knows how to go there, since it's surrounded by mountains and forests, meaning there is nowhere for airships to land. The only mode of transport that can make it there are gold chocoboes."

Sephiroth looked thoughtfully at Vincent after the brief explanation. He then closed his eyes and appeared to be ruminating about something. A short while later, he opened his eyes and said, "Gaia can't sense anybody on that island."

At that, Vincent blinked in surprise. Communication with the Planet was something only the Ancients were able to do. The last Ancient he once knew could only do so on a limited basis. And Cloud, who was some sort of an honorary Ancient himself, was sometimes unable to get Gaia to even reply him. Either the Planet was really angry, or there was more to Sephiroth's abilities than the world ever knew. It was not a far stretch, Vincent eventually decided. Sephiroth had demonstrated his ability to control parts of the Lifestream at different points of time, back when they were still actively pitted against each other. Being obsessed with his own brand of vengeance, that Sephiroth only thought about engineering that ability for evil. It was all too possible that a lucid Sephiroth could likewise engineer it for good.

"If Gaia says so," Vincent said, "then it must be true. However we are running out of time and options. Since you are able to harness the Lifestream somehow, perhaps you can ask Gaia if she finds any trace of Cloud anywhere on the Planet?"

Sephiroth frowned. "If she had a clue, I wouldn't be here now, would I?" The man shrugged. "However, the Great Seer wasn't lying when he spoke of that island," he angled his chin subtly towards the tired looking old man, who was observing a spot on the floor while propping himself up against the wall of the cavernous room. "My suggestion is that we go there. After all, a father can't be wrong about his own son's whereabouts, can he?"

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"Who... what?? What father? Who? And of whom?!" Zack managed to splutter in his confusion.

"The leader of the Bazookas is my son," the Great Seer confirmed in a weak voice. "I warned him about his folly, but he would not listen. Before he disappeared, he told me where he was going, and challenged me to bring him and his troops down if I could. But I am only a messenger. What use is an old man against the indignation of these young men out for blood? To be sure, the Planet was well aware of the situation. Perhaps it never struck her that it would become like this. Perhaps she has it all under control. Perhaps she has plans for how things will turn out. Whatever the case, the die is cast, and there is nothing for you warriors to do but to face these rebels in a final confrontation, that the Planet and its people may finally be at rest."

Sephiroth was the first to move after the explanation. He turned away from the Great Seer, towards the only door leading out. "I will go," his voice was clear and authoritative, "not for the Planet, but for a loyal comrade who never stopped trying to reach out." With those words, the man swept out of the chamber with purposeful strides.

Zack gave the downcast Great Seer an almost pitiful look. Then he turned and followed Sephiroth out of the room as well. Vincent stared longer at the seer, looking like he was trying to decide whether or not he should say something.

"Sometimes we only realise the importance of something after we lose it," the man eventually intoned. "But it's never too late to turn back." He nodded towards the seer, in acknowledgement. "If your boy is willing, we will bring him back." The man promised. Then he left the room as well, in a whirl of red and black.

The Great Seer collapsed onto his knees. The great howling from the abyss behind a perfect reflection of the state of his empty heart.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
5aug2009


	26. Chapter 26

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Six  
To be forgotten is worse than death.

 

When Cloud woke up, he panicked. Then immediately relaxed and pretended to be still unconscious.

The panic was due to the fact that there were currently a myriad of wires connected to his body - some with needles, others with non-invasive sensors.

It took all the self-control Cloud had not even known he had to stop himself from ripping the connections away from his body right there and then. The machine registering his heartbeat went slightly faster for a short moment before returning to a more normal monotone. So quickly, not even the most observant doctor could have noticed, unless they had been specifically looking out for it.

'I am so good at faking vital signs,' Cloud congratulated himself morosely. Then he turned his attention to what had made him pretend to be asleep in the first place.

There were voices above him. From what he could deduce, two people were having a heated conversation. There was probably also something like a wall between him and the discussion going on. The voices were close, but slightly muffled, as if the participants were speaking through water.

Of course, due to his enhancements, no wall or substance could stop him from listening into the conversation if he really tried, but the opponents did not need to know that.

"By all clinical signs, he is healthy and ready to be tested on," one voice was saying. Cloud fought against an urge to frown. They were obviously talking about him. And they obviously did not have something pleasant in store for him, if the needles and machines were any indication.

"Well, then why aren't we doing it already?" A calm but annoyed voice which Cloud recognised to be the Chancellor's asked. At once, memories returned to him. He had been on the way to retrieving the black and white materia as per the Seer's request, but had met with an ambush en route. They were doing a rather decent job of holding back the opponents, all things considered, but Cloud had lowered his guard in a moment of emotional vulnerability, and that was why he was here now, trapped and apparently about to be experimented on.

"Sir, it is established fact that the human body has stark differences in response when awake and asleep. And since I really do think you would rather be able to stay conscious when becoming immortal, my personal advice is that we should test his biological makeup when he is awake and aware first, before proceeding to other kinds of experimentation," the first voice answered the Chancellor's question, with an equal amount of annoyance.

A loud harrumph was the man's only response. Then, "How long will it take for him to wake up?"

"We don't know, sir, it really depends on how much of the drug you administered to him..."

"Well, I don't have all day! Get him to wake up right now!" The Chancellor snarled.

"With all due respect, sir, you don't necessarily have to be present when the tests are carried out..."

"Are you trying to tell me what to do?!"

"Of course not, I was just..."

Sensing that the conversation was about to become a meaningless squabble, Cloud tuned the voices above him out to concentrate instead on crafting a plan for escape. No doubt, some amount of time must have passed between the scuffle at Coralissimo and him being dragged here. Sephiroth likely would have informed the others about him by now, or at least, Vincent would have noticed that the General had either returned without him, or not returned at all. In any case, he was sure help was on the way.

Not that he was going to wait for them like a silly little damsel in distress, of course.

Focusing his attention on his senses, Cloud tried to guess the dimensions of the room he was in. It was a rather small, round-shaped area and he was lying on a raised platform. Judging by the uncomfortable coldness he could feel through his clothing, it was probably a experiment table. Light assaulted his eyes even though his lids were down, telling him that the room was brightly lit. He risked a peek as the argument above him was still raging, and saw that some metres above was a glass ceiling. It acted like an observatory wall, for he could see the two quarreling men through the glass, and needless to say, they likely could see him as well. There were other men in the room besides the two, and although he could feel their presence, he could not see them through the glass ceiling.

They had removed his weapon, for obvious reasons. His materia pouch was also gone, but he could sense that they had placed it somewhere in the room above him. Thankfully, none of the wires connected to his body were transmitting anything dangerous into his body. Yet. What with the way the conversation above him was going, he wouldn't be surprised if they started jabbing him with something lethal soon - whether they thought he was awake and responsive or not.

"...don't care what you think because I want you to start the experiment now, and that's final," Cloud caught on to the ominous words of the Chancellor. He frowned, because the first man who had been arguing with the Chancellor merely sighed in response. It seemed like he was about to give in.

'No point pretending to be asleep, then,' Cloud decided, and sat up straight in a flash. He heard gasps above him, but ignored them and took a full look around the room he was in. He guessed rightly that it was a round-shaped area, and that he had been placed on an experiment table of sorts. The wires that were attached to him were plugged into the walls around him, and the built-in machines there displayed all kinds of strange statistics that almost made his head swirl. He did not want to know what those numbers meant.

In fact, he did not want to see those numbers at all, so he reached out for the wires that were all over his body, and ripped them all away methodically, ignoring the sharp stings he received from some of the disconnections. Once he was done, he hopped off the table and glanced upwards at the gawking men. He could see more of them now. The others had probably gathered when they noticed that something was happening down in the subject's room.

It did not look like the men were going to get over their shock anytime soon, so Cloud decided to break the ice.

"Greetings," he held a hand out. "Will you let me out of this room peacefully, or will I have to break out myself?"

The Chancellor was the first to regain his wits and composure. He sternly said, "You are a prisoner here, Cloud Strife, so you will listen to us if you know what's good for you."

"I know what's good for me all right," Cloud grumbled, checking his arms and finding tiny dots where the needles had been inserted, "and it sure isn't staying put in this bright little room for you to poke sharp stuff into me like I'm some human pincushion."

"We merely wish to find out how you are achieving your longevity so we can apply it and use it for the good of everyone!" The Chancellor yelled in indignation.

Cloud narrowed his eyes at the men through the ceiling glass. "I've told you countless times that it's not my secret to share. And besides," a few faces flashed by his mind, "you don't need to live as long as I did to really make a difference."

The Chancellor was silent for a while. Then he asked, "But what if I'm trying to make a difference to a Planet that will exist for eons even after I'm gone?"

Arching an eyebrow at the unexpected confession, Cloud had to collect his jaw. "You," he started, "...you're trying to make a difference to the /Planet/ herself? By going against her representatives?"

"The Seers are not her representatives!" The man yelled in indignation, slamming both hands on the glass ceiling and causing a muffled thud to echo throughout the room Cloud was in.

"I think she can be the judge of that," Cloud shrugged. "Look, I'm just a mercenary, and while I run odd jobs for the Seers, I have nothing to do with them at all. This longevity you speak of, it's not even something within my control. I can't tell you how you go about achieving this, but what I can tell you is that Gaia has a part in this. If you want to make a difference to the Planet, why not just ask her directly? Through her representatives of course," he paused. "Unless, you're just jealous that you weren't chosen to be part of the group of Seers?"

"Nothing of the sort," the Chancellor immediately replied and turned his nose up as if in disgust. "My old man is the Great Seer, and look what's happening to the Planet still! The old ways do not work anymore. The time has come for radical changes, and the Bazookas will spearhead that very movement. But for there to be real effect, we need to look at the long-term prospects. And by long-term, I mean hundreds, even thousands of years down the road! You hold the key to that knowledge, and yet you refuse to share! You leave us no choice but to force you to reveal the secret. There is no way to escape that room you are in, and even without the wire connections, we are able to..."

Cloud merely paid half a heed as the Chancellor enthusiastically explained how exactly he was going to harvest Cloud's cells and blood to run tests on them to see how he could alter his own body to resemble Cloud's current makeup. His mind had caught on to something the man had said, and he was half-heartedly ruminating on it.

Then it struck him.

"Wait, what..." Cloud exclaimed, pointing at the Chancellor. "The Great Seer is your father?!"

The man sulked. "Unfortunately," he admitted.

"I don't believe this," Cloud groaned and mumbled into a hand. "So it was just an epic family feud all along?"

"I assure you, this is definitely more than a mere 'family feud', as you put it," the Chancellor sighed. "The fate of the Planet itself hangs in the balance!"

Cloud sighed. How many times had he heard that throughout his life now?

And how many times had it worked?

"You spoke of AVALANCHE," Cloud warily mentioned. "What do you know of them? Of us?"

The Chancellor was all too happy to reply. "You were a gang of freedom fighters that overturned an evil regime called Shinra that had been keeping the secrets of the Planet to themselves, bringing about peace and relief to the people of the land and the Planet herself. In return, you were granted the gift of immortality, and you continue to help the Planet weed out unsavoury types even now."

"No," Cloud shook his head, "we weren't freedom fighters. We were terrorists. Our actions caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Shinra wasn't an evil regime harbouring Planet secrets. They were a commercial company headed by people who thought they were doing everyone a favour by using the Planet to do what THEY thought was the best thing," he tilted his head to glance up at the man above. "Kinda reminds me of you."

The man was about to protest, but Cloud gave him no chance.

"We didn't bring peace or relief to the people. If anything, we destroyed their lives as they knew it and forced them to return to what they thought they had left - all for the sake of an ideal that was never eventually fulfilled. The Planet has never gotten better since our crusade. If anything, she keeps getting worse." He paused. "And as for that last part, you must have made it up, since it wasn't in the glorified history books at all."

"You dare tarnish the good name of the heroes who saved the world?!" The Chancellor bellowed in immediate response.

"I'm one of those 'heroes', am I not?" Cloud smiled tiredly.

"And you have obviously gone mad," the man shook his head. It looked like he was ready to break the glass ceiling open with his own bare hands.

Cloud shrugged. "Look, I'm not going to argue with you about this. But I thought you at least deserve to know the truth, since you seem to really look up to AVALANCHE. That said, you can do whatever you want with this knowledge. Now, back to my question: Are you going to let me out, or do I have to do this the hard way?"

It was interesting how one man could change the colour of his face so quickly, and so many times, within the span of a few seconds. Eventually, however, the Chancellor calmed himself down and managed to school his features. He turned towards the side to speak with one of the men - presumably a scientist under his employment - standing there.

They spoke in a soft undertone, but Cloud heard every word. The Chancellor was asking the scientist if there was any chance they had left any weapon or materia with the madman, and the scientist assured the other man they had done their job properly.

Cloud sighed to himself. He scanned through the materia they had taken hostage quickly with his mind, found a Sleep, and promptly put everyone under the strongest sleep spell he could muster at that point.

After the last body thudded loudly onto the floor, there was nothing but dead silence.

Alternating between a strong fire and ice spell, Cloud managed to make the glass ceiling brittle enough to shatter by itself. He then stepped on the examination table and hefted himself out of the little hole, taking care not to step on any fallen bodies. The Bazookas were long past persuading, he had figured, so there was no point squabbling with them any further. He did, however, want to find out where they were getting their funds, where their other hideouts were, and other pertinent details about the mysterious organisation that would help him stop them from aggravating the Planet any further.

And since the Chancellor was not in the mood to reveal, he would have to look for the information himself.

The room above was like a larger version of the examination room he had been in. A significant portion of the rounded walls housed rows upon rows of holographic screens displaying digital scans of ancient manuscripts Cloud knew was no longer in existence. He glanced through them briefly, noting that most of them were stories related to or based on the Meteor event that had happened thousands of years ago. Some of them were even written by Cloud himself. Feeling somewhat cross about that, Cloud kicked the wall.

The screens sputtered and fizzled out - something Cloud had not been expecting to happen. Nevermind, he thought to himself. And nothing of value was lost.

There was a window looking outside on the next portion of the wall, so Cloud strode over and glanced out. It was dark; very dark. Tiny sparkles of light dotted the inky skies. Cloud deduced that the building he was in had to be very high up in the air for the sky to be so clear. He was about to turn away when something caught his attention.

He returned his glance to the window and this time, peered out from a different angle, to make sure that he had not been hallucinating. The bright, beautiful form of the planet he had been born on greeted him most glowingly, confirming that he had not.

It would appear this building was located in outer space.

'Well,' Cloud reasoned with himself, his thoughts obviously not fully caught up with his senses yet, 'no wonder I haven't been hearing the Lifestream?'

Needless to say, this did present the problem of how he was going to get back to the Planet and resume living his (barely) normal life, but that probably had to wait.

There was a metal table just beside the window, where his sword and materia pouch had been placed. He reclaimed his possessions while peering at the panel that was next to the table.

Obviously, it was a control panel of sorts. What it controlled, however, was a big question mark at the moment. There was a high chance it was behind how the building was managing to stay in outer space, though, so once he was done rearranging his equipment, Cloud made himself comfortable in the only seat in front of the panel.

The blank space in front immediately sprang into life. Touchscreens sprang up in front of Cloud from seemingly nowhere, awaiting his input to proceed. A virtual visor locked into position over Cloud's eyes, where it was feeding him data according to what the brainwave sensors were detecting he required information about. This was nothing short of surprising for Cloud, who had never quite seen technology that reacted so quickly to the mere thoughts of its controller before. Nevertheless, he figured out quickly enough how to manipulate the system, and began searching for a way to drive the building back to ground zero.

After briefly looking through the architectural blueprints, Cloud concluded that it was not a building he was in, but a spaceship of sorts. The unnecessarily detailed plans spoke of weapons, engines, and infrastructure he was not sure he had ever seen before in his long life, and it puzzled him to no end. Where had the Bazookas gotten this machine, and if there was technology of this sort available, how had the manufacturer been able to stay under the radar of so many power hungry countries all this time?

Immediately, as if in reply to his unspoken question, images started flooding into his mind.

Cloud saw a lone figure seated where he was now sitting, piloting the ship with obvious ease and familiarity.

The figure was walking down the gangplank of the ship into the company of a horde of curious onlookers.

She (yes, it was a "she", Cloud decided) was engaged with animated conversation with another group of people.

The ship was slowly sinking into a large pool of mako.

She was touching the water surrounding the City of Ancients.

"To be forgotten is worse than death," she cried - the first and last time Cloud would hear her voice in the sequence of images - and the water turned black.

And the last thing the ship would show him, was her beautiful face framed with long, silver hair, contorted with anger and tinged with sorrow.

Cloud had to grip the edges of the seat to keep himself from falling off.

Little wonder no one else had ever heard of the technology found in here before.

This was, after all, the one and only chariot of the Calamity from the Sky.

 

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2nov2010


	27. Chapter 27

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. 

 

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Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Seven  
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

 

When Vincent and company exit the Ancient Temple, they were surprised and yet sort of not-so-surprised to find the black and white chocoboes waiting for them outside.

"We left them at the Goldsaucer," Sephiroth was saying. Upon closer examination, one could see the slight frown of confusion on his face.

"I don't know how they're doing this, but at least we'll be able to travel to Round Island now?" Zack laughed, four parts mystified and six parts amused.

Vincent's cape started to flare as he muttered, "I will lead the way there. Follow me on the chocoboes. There is no time to be wasted." That said, he took off into the air as a swirling mass of red velvet.

Sephiroth and Zack stared at the spinning red cloak until it became a tiny dot in the sky.

"We had better follow, before we lost sight of... him," Sephiroth eventually managed.

Zack snorted something in agreement. The both of them hopped onto the waiting birds and were on their way before long.

It was a surreal start to what would be an even more surreal day.

x--x

Travelling to Round Island took the better part of the day. By the time the trio had arrived in the vicinity, Vincent was already out of cloak-mode and back to his usual self. If bat wings protruding out of his back was considered usual in any way. They vanished into his cloak after a while.

Zack chose not to say anything, having seen it before. Sephiroth merely quirked an eyebrow at it, but was tactful enough to keep his comments to himself.

The chocoboes had left to graze at the sea, once they deposited the men at Round Island. For all the eagerness they had in bringing them here, they certainly showed by their behaviour now that they were not interested in getting caught in the crossfire that was going to occur soon at all. The SOLDIERs were more than happy to leave the chocoboes to their own devices. Who knew what having two giant telepathic birds could do to the battle that was to come?

"So I suppose this will be the base where the most rebels are located," Zack was saying. They were now standing rather obtusely on the peak of one of the mountains encapsulating the entire island. "Do we have a plan or something?"

"Unfortunately I can hardly see a thing behind the thick canopy of tree leaves," Sephiroth shook his head. "Perhaps we should think about strategy again after we can pinpoint where the exact location of their hideout is."

All of a sudden, a bright green beam of energy burst forth from beneath the trees, heading directly for the trio's position and forcing them to leap clear of the impact zone. The energy beam uprooted a great deal of trees and created a new crater on the surface of the mountain where Vincent and company had been standing. On a negative note, they were now quite far apart from each other. On a positive note, they now knew where the base of the rebels was situated.

"There's just no way someone can fire a spell from so far away and still hit for such great damage, even if they coupled it with Long Range," Zack complained, knowing that Sephiroth would pick his voice up with his enhanced hearing. And as for Vincent, he was sure the man had his own ways.

"Unfortunately, it would appear they are not exactly using a certain 'someone' to carry out this astonishing task," Sephiroth replied, tilting his head slightly in the direction of the base.

The dust was beginning to settle from the massive blast just now. The men could make out three large machines placed side by side, and they were not unlike the mobile cannons Shinra sometimes employed during the war against Wutai. The difference, of course, was that while Shinra generally loaded their tanks with gunpowder ammunition, the Bazookas were apparently loading them with materia.

Another blast came without warning, forcing the trio further apart. "Distract them," Sephiroth instructed Zack, even as he began to make his way quickly down the mountain top. "I am going to get close enough to destroy the cannons without hurting anyone."

"Can't you just use your air slash thingy?" Zack was none too pleased at being asked to be a diversion. "That attack's like the mother of all range! I bet you could use it to slice the moon into pieces if you just wanted to..."

Unfortunately for him, he received no answer, for Sephiroth was no longer close enough to reply him.

Dodging a row of raging energy beams, Zack tried to make his way down from the mountain top as well. Vincent appeared beside him from seemingly nowhere, but Zack had grown almost used to the lurking behaviour of the mercenary by now, so all he did was to raise an eyebrow in question.

"It will not be wise to fire off a long range attack at the machines from here," the man in cape was in full expository mode, "unless we intend to also destroy whoever is manning the machines."

"No way! Sephiroth wouldn't make silly mistakes like that!" Zack scoffed at the very idea. "He can tell a human apart from machine."

"Prudence or consequences, as they always teach in Turk classes," Vincent shrugged. "The machines may seem unmanned at first glance, but since it takes years of practice to be able to activate materia from a distance, it is only logical for us to deduce that the people behind the machines are hidden from sight somewhere nearby, or perhaps even inside the machines themselves. They certainly are large enough."

"And so we shouldn't just go blowing things up," Zack understood Vincent's logic. "All right, I guess. We can improvise. You think a Quake3 could throw them off their balance for a while?"

By this time, they were near the foot of the mountains, but still some distance away from the machines.

"You could try, but how is Sephiroth going to know about that?" Vincent asked wryly.

"He chose to fly off by himself," Zack was already charging the spell, the materia in his sword glowing a bright green, "he'll just have to deal with it."

The materia now fully charged, Zack swung his sword in a dramatic arc to hit the ground they were standing on. Vincent was ready for the impact, having already thrown magic shields up. And not a moment too soon, for once Zack' sword touched ground, the earth started shaking so strongly, loose soil actually broke off from the mountain tops and began rolling down the slopes at tremendous speed.

Vincent and Zack were not waiting to be swallowed up by the avalanche, however. They each took off in the direction of the machines that had since stopped firing at them. Quake3 was a long spell, and it not only interferred with someone's sense of equilibrium, but motor abilities as well. If humans were powering the machines, they would have no choice but to stop. But since Vincent was protected by magical shields and Zack was the caster, the spell had minimal effects on them. They traversed the forest and reached the clearing where the machines had been situated soon enough.

Of course, it was no surprise to see that Sephiroth had already beaten them to the punch, considering he had a head start. They were not even surprised that the General had already destroyed one of the machines.

What did surprise them was the stack of corpses pouring out of the part of the machines where Sephiroth had destroyed by cleaving in half.

"What the...?!" Zack yelped, coming to a stop in front of the now nonoperational device. The quake had already ceased. Zack gawked at the scene for a while, then turned to Sephiroth, silently asking for answers.

"They're feeding the machines with the dead bodies, using the same method I had described in War Blocks," Sephiroth explained, his voice taut. "Be careful. That means there are other people out there, behind the trees, controlling this thing from a distance."

"Indeed," Vincent agreed. He was peering into another machine with a clear, full-length window down the middle, showing the internals. "Nobody inside seems to be alive. They cannot have been the ones giving commands to the machine."

Zack had moved to the only other machine still standing and was looking through the clear window as well. He grimaced and looked away soon after. "Same here," he said. As he turned, he saw Sephiroth casting a Dispel on the bodies. At once, vestiges of the magical barrier that had been surrounding them broke into pieces, falling away and dissolving into the air. Sephiroth then proceeded to charge Long Range and Manipulate. "What are you trying to do?" Zack could not help but ask his superior officer.

"Activating the killswitch for Project War Blocks," was the man's simple reply, before a fresh volley of spells bombarded the trio.

The spells were not as large and concentrated as the ones the machines had generated, so the barriers Vincent had the wisdom to silently set up around the area deflected most of them. The ones that did get through were either physically parried or landed on the machines, which the three of them had hidden behind upon sensing the approach of the magic missiles.

Outside the area, trees that stood in the way of the spells were being systematically decimated. This revealed the Bazooka rank and file who had been hiding behind them, firing wild and random spells in hopes that one would eventually hit. Vincent continued to throw up barrier after barrier. Although he knew he could do this for a pretty long time, he also knew that Vincent and materia did not particularly match. Glancing at Sephiroth, who was still charging Long Range and Manipulate, he stated, "I hope you have a plan."

"One that will take some time, but is bound to work," Sephiroth indicated.

Lifestream had erupted from the ground by now and was going circles around him, though never really getting close to him. Eventually, a stray strand of green brushed the tip of his boot.

'Let me help,' a voice echoed in Sephiroth's head.

'No, thank you,' Sephiroth declined as politely as he could.

The voice actually giggled. 'Spoilsport. But have it your way. Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action!'

'If I pretend I understood that, will you go away and take your friends with you?'

The Lifestream ebbed as suddenly as it came.

"How long do you need for this killswitch?" Zack' voice slowly pulled Sephiroth back from the semi-trance. He had appointed himself as Sephiroth's personal meat tank, standing in front of the General and hitting away any stray spells that came by. "Because I don't think we can keep doing this all day and night!"

Instead of answering Zack' question, Sephiroth said, "When I raise my sword into the air, throw up the strongest magic barrier you can muster. I don't think the spells will come in our direction, but it seems like you can never tell, nowadays."

Neither Vincent nor Zack had time to question Sephiroth's utterly cryptic statement, for immediately after he had finished his piece, he raised his sword.

The next thing to happen was spectacular.

The deluge of spells halted immediately. Instead of charging towards the three, the spells burst skywards. As there was a limit to how much range a particular spell had before it either hit the target or tapered off, nothing more than a few clouds were disturbed in the process.

Vincent stopped maintaining the magical barriers he had cast in response to Sephiroth's instructions. He glanced up at the fireworks display, silently impressed. Sephiroth had somehow gained control over all the materia in the possession of the Bazookas, and were directing them upwards. He could not see why the man would be doing this, since using materia gained experience for the orbs, and when mature, mastered materia produced new ones. Surely Sephiroth did not intend to give the Bazookas more fodder to use against them. Nevertheless, he trusted that the SOLDIER knew what he was doing.

Turning his attention to the rebels, Vincent saw that they were panicking. Having lost control of the weapons that had propelled them forward in this war threw them for a loop that nobody knew how to recover from. Vincent could tell there was no proper chain of command in this army, by the way the men were giving each other confused looks. Apparently, they had been given just one set of instructions - to attack the intruders. And whoever had ordered them to do so had not factored failure into the equation.

Three other materia equipped on Sephiroth's sword started glowing blue and radiant purple.

Then one by one, the materia began to disintegrate into pieces.

This caught even Vincent by surprise. In all his experience with materia, he knew that overuse could bring about their destruction. However, it was unprecedented that ALL the materia were breaking up. Especially when it seemed like they were approaching mastered level. Mastered materia almost never wore out.

"What Project War Blocks produced was artificial materia," Sephiroth suddenly spoke out, as if sensing Vincent's uncertainty. "That means the materia will lack certain conditions that natural materia is endowed with. Natural materia, once equipped, recognises its owner and generally does not respond to another's casting until it physically changes hands. Artificial materia answers to the higher bidder - anyone who offers the largest amount of MP - as long as this person is mentally strong enough to override the initial caster's original intention with their own. What natural materia calls on is energy from the entire pool of Lifestream, and when mastered, the extra energy boost crystallises into another new materia. Artificial materia, on the other hand, calls upon the energy of the materia itself, and the mini Lifestream within it. Not only is it unable to produce a new materia, using it until there is no energy left will summarily destroy it. And that is what the killswitch for Project War Blocks is all about - the speedy destruction of all artificially produced materia."

There was a pause where nothing but magical energy and the sound of breaking materia could be heard. Then Zack stated, quietly, "But Shinra is still using materia we were using during the war. If that's the killswitch, wouldn't someone in Wutai have discovered and used it already? We didn't exactly have the most strong-minded infantrymen there, you know."

"Yes, I'm afraid I agree with his line of thought," Vincent voiced out as well. "It seems you are hiding certain details from us. If the killswitch was as simple as wresting control of the artificial materia away from the original caster and then manipulating it into somehow expending itself, then you were putting your men at a higher risk than offering them materia that could only be used once, by giving the enemy a loophole to exploit to the detriment of your army." He glanced at Sephiroth from the side of his eyes. "But you are not that kind of General, are you?"

Sephiroth did not answer that, although he did say, "There is a reason why I did not include the killswitch when I wrote the report for Project War Blocks. The method is simple enough that anybody can pull it off. The problem, however, is knowing the right time to stop."

And stop Sephiroth did, cancelling all his spells without fanfare and returning the silence of nature to Round Island in the blink of an eye. Although not all artifical materia had been destroyed yet, the single act of suddenly cancelling the spells saw to their annihilation nevertheless, earning the awe of Vincent and Zack, and the further confusion of the rebels.

"Depleting an artificial materia is not the only way to hurt it," Sephiroth explained. "What happens when you run a marathon at top speed for a long stretch but suddenly have to stop and stay completely still? You notice your heart palpitating, your muscles burning, your never-ending perspiration, and breathing that hurts your chest every other second. An endowed athelete will probably get over these symptoms eventually, but what of a weaker participant who neither joined the race willingly, nor have the natural ability to compete?"

"He collapses," Zack nodded slowly in understanding, "and that's what happening to the artificial materia now."

Sephiroth nodded. "Although the materia itself is not organic by any means, the energy it draws on is still Lifestream energy, and thus to a certain extent, it mimics the qualities of the life found therein." Leaving Zack and turning to Vincent, Sephiroth nodded at the mercenary to address him. "It is my responsibility to foresee all the possible outcomes of the war and draw up the best contingency plans to my men's best interest. I thank you for questioning my judgement for the sake of those under my command, but my absolute refusal to reveal the exact details of the killswitch to anyone - even allies - was and still is, in their best interest."

Vincent gave the General a long, searching look. Eventually, having found the answers he had been looking for, he simply nodded and looked away, towards the perimeter of the clearing they were in, where the rebels still stood, now without their trump cards.

"So what do we do about them?" It was Zack who asked. His grin was back in place, as it usually would be whenever he sensed upcoming action. "I've always wanted to take on an army single-handedly!" He suggested.

"Yes, and one day you will get your chance," Sephiroth replied dryly. "But for now, why don't we simply shoot for a peaceful surrender, since we still need /someone/ to tell us where they've abducted Cloud to?"

"Looking for me?"

The heads of all three men snapped upwards at breakneck speed the moment they heard the voice. There, against the backdrop of the evening sky, was Cloud riding a familiar looking motorcycle towards them. Yes. Cloud was riding a motorcycle in the air. Behind him, trailed a large box-like structure with small openings for windows which were barricaded by thick bars. It looked like Cloud was riding a motorcycle attached to a mobile prison of sorts. In the sky. Where things like humans and motorcycles and mobile prisons were supposed to come crashing down at terminal velocity with no ifs or buts or silly questions asked.

Nobody standing on the ground quite knew how to react.

And Cloud did them all a favour by not saying anything, not laughing, and not even twitching a single muscle in his face. When he got close enough, he simply encircled the area above the clearing, silently counting the number of Bazookas he had to take care of.

Then with a simple thought, he summoned a pair of what looked like missile launchers, plucked them out from the air they had appeared from, and fired. The missiles headed for the ground, but before they could hit, their tips burst open, strewing purple powder across the area of the rebels, somehow completely missing Cloud's allies. The missiles took on a life of their own, circling the air above the Bazookas until they completed one full round, before quietly bursting into a puff of smoke.

Cloud released the launchers, which shimmered and dissolved into nothingness.

The purple powder was apparently a sleeping powder of sorts. It did not take long for all the rebels in the area to drop to the ground, dead asleep.

By the time this phenomena had ended, Cloud had landed with his flying motorcycle and mobile prison. Not that he actually touched the ground, but at least he was now two metres above instead of twenty. He and his friends exchanged a long, long, long look.

"Umm, I can explain," Cloud offered. He was still seated in the motorcycle. "You see, I'm not actually riding a motorcycle, but a spaceship."

More silence.

"Well, it morphs... sort of... according to your thoughts, and since I didn't really know how to pilot a spaceship well, I thought of using something I was more comfortable with, and before I knew it the spaceship vanished and I was on a motorcycle. But I'm actually still in the spaceship, on the pilot's seat. It's just that the ship is somehow projecting itself as a motorcycle to me and the people outside, and... err..." He paused, taking the lack of reaction for a lack of belief. Which he could not and did not blame them for. "...Why don't I just show you?"

The blinding flash of light that next followed lasted only a split second. Cloud shimmered out of view, replaced by the rounded tip of something that looked like sturdy metal coated with a layer of iridescent mother-of-pearl.

The large area behind him which had looked empty previously slowly became filled, like how a computer rendered a hypothetical machine from its internals to the finished product. A layer of grid resembling the skeleton structure of a large oval balloon first appeared, from tip to toe. Then it was covered over with finer grids, as well as intersecting planes that made up walls, along with pipes, containers, and terminals. Then it was made opaque with something metallic. The external was covered with a shining white structure. And finally, a thick layer of space dust crusted over most of the surface, changing the look-and-feel of the entire construction from that of futuristic space shuttle to rudimentary meteorite.

The 'meteorite' was so large, it stretched from one end of Round Island to the other. It had been positioned diagonally, with one end barely touching the ground and the other end pointing towards the sky, towering over the mountains that kept Round Island from view. As the astonished men gaped openly at the ship, there was a whirring sound, and the bottom of the tip near the ground opened up. A gangplank of light extended itself out silently. Cloud appeared not long after, walking down the translucent bridge.

"So..." he said, when it seemed like no one else would be saying anything for a long time.

"What did I miss?"

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
15feb2011


	28. Chapter 28

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. 

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Eight  
Look beyond where hearts can see.

 

Now that they were properly united, the four men found themselves comfortably seated inside the space shuttle's cockpit area. There was an air of sombre silence hanging over the party. Which was only broken when Zack sighed and spoke up.

"And so in summary, you knocked everyone out, found the controls, got familiar with them, commanded the ship to lock up all the Bazookas, and then rode down back to the Planet with a motorcycle? Ugh..." The SOLDIER held his head in his hands. "Did I get something wrong?"

"I didn't ride down in a motorcycle, Zack, that was just the ship pretending to be one since I wanted a form of transportation I was more familiar with," Cloud clarified.

"Was there a need to drag that floating mobile prison along with you, though?" The SOLDIER retorted, then grinned. "Or maybe you were just trying to act cool, huh?"

"The Chancellor and his lackeys were inside, and I was going to use it to threaten the rest of the Bazookas on Round Island into surrendering," Cloud answered, his face showing slight exasperation. "How was I to know you guys had already done that?"

"I don't know, this ship seems to be able to do just about anything and everything," Zack turned and glanced around at the room they were in. There were panels upon panels of information floating all around them. And if he just thought hard enough, the panels nearest to him would blink and display information related to what he had wanted to know. It was downright creepy.

Cloud had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "Of course that's not true, Zack. Yeah, so it reads your thoughts and displays it... but you can turn that off if you want, you know. And it can only do what the pilot tells it to do. That's hardly anything and everything."

"Same difference, same difference," Zack snorted, then fell into a short silence. In the meantime, a large panel flickered beside Zack, which was visible to everyone present, and it showed the unconscious Bazooka rebels being housed in their individual prisons on the ship's dungeons. The SOLDIER eyed the panel with a forced smile. "Yeah, exactly. Thanks for throwing out my thoughts for the world to see," he finally mumbled. Abruptly, the screens around Zack vanished. The SOLDIER grinned. "Oh, so you really can turn it off!" He laughed. Turning back to face the others after that, he asked, "What are we going to do about those guys we caught?"

"The ship's system has a list of names, pictures, and information, which it can use to identify each and every person," Cloud explained, and a panel beside him blinked to life to show scrolling information about the Bazookas. "I think the Bazookas managed to somehow get the ship to work for them, though it would seem they never got to utilise it to the full."

"So this ship is not pilotable by just anybody?" Vincent asked.

"I think it is," Cloud answered. "Otherwise, how would the Bazookas have used it all this time? I think... there are different levels of control, depending on how... synchronised the pilot can get with the ship," he frowned slightly. "Anyway, I've already instructed the ship to drop off the men at their hometowns once they are awake, according to the information on the list."

"There is no telling if they will band together for another stint like this again, if you let them off so lightly," Sephiroth pointed out.

Cloud nodded. "Yes, and that's why the ship will be sending all the bigwigs to Coralissimo. Since the biggest wig was originally from there anyway. The Imperator will deal with them accordingly. As for the rest of the men... what can they do without leadership, and most importantly... materia?"

It was a reasonable line of thought, so the men fell back into silence, pondering the events of the day.

"It's been a long day," Cloud eventually said. "The ship will be on autopilot while it sends all the rebels back home. Why don't we all take a rest for now? Once the ship delivers everyone, we'll be going back to the Seers for a final confrontation. And this time, there will be answers."

The way Cloud had said it left no room for discussion. Zack was the first to get up from his seat, stretching like a cat. "Okay, and I guess the ship's gonna show me to my room or something, huh?" He asked in jest. Only to have a bright red arrow appear in front of him, pointing towards a certain direction.

"Apparently, it furnishes instructions in consideration of the other party's intelligence, too," Sephiroth smirked, when he saw the arrow.

Zack stuck a tongue out at his superior. "I hope you get a yellow bricked road!" With that parting shot, he exited the room, dutifully following his arrow guide.

"I shall make my move too," Vincent stood gracefully, turning down the corridor that Zack had just walked out to. Sephiroth rose to his feet as well, and was about to follow, when Cloud stopped him.

"Sephiroth, wait," Cloud called out. The General turned around to glance quizzically at the mercenary. Standing up, Cloud said, "I need to talk to you about something." At this, even Vincent paused and turned around to look over his shoulder. "Alone," Cloud continued, looking at Vincent in the eye when he said it. They communicated silently for a few seconds, before Vincent broke eye contact and shrugged, going on his way.

Sephiroth waited until Vincent turned the corner before walking back into the pilot's control room. "What is it?" He asked.

Cloud frowned, not knowing where to start. "Let's walk," he eventually said, pointing toward a part of what Sephiroth had thought was a wall, but was actually a door that had suddenly zipped open. Cloud walked through it, and although Sephiroth did not know what was on the other side, at least Cloud had not said 'let's mosey' or something equally aggravating, so he followed.

Stepping through, the General saw that it was a wide corridor with glass windows on both sides, displaying something incredibly out of the world. Glancing out on one side, he could see scorched earth, cracked and peeling, beaten into submission by the naked sun's searing heat and merciless rays. On the other side, there was nothing but a blanket of snow as far as the eyes could see. A scarlet moon glared down angrily at the forlorn terrain, up in the darkened, starless sky. These places were certainly not found in Gaia; not that he knew of, anyway. Turning to Cloud, who had come to a stop a fair distance apart in the long corridor, he waited for answers.

Cloud turned around to look at Sephiroth. "Do these places look familiar to you?" He asked.

"No," Sephiroth answered. "And they are not places on Gaia, are they?"

"Apparently they are scenes from the ship owner's original home planet," Cloud said. "You sure they don't look familiar at all?"

Sephiroth thought long and hard, searching through every nook and crany of his memories. Finally, he shook his head. "No. And I am quite certain. But why do you ask?"

At this, it was Cloud's turn to become silent. He shifted his weight around uncomfortably, and hesitation was evident on his face. "What do you know of Project S?" Was his question, when he found it in himself to speak.

Sephiroth was, of course, surprised that Cloud even knew about Project S. Nevertheless, he answered. "An experiment on enhancing the human body by manipulating the subject foetus from conception," Sephiroth repeated by rote what he had been told. "Apparently with mako, and other organic compounds."

Cloud's face twisted into something like disbelief. Then it relaxed slightly. "I'm surprised you even know this much at this point of time. But you're right. Mako and those 'organic compounds' you spoke of played a large part in the project. Mako is available everywhere on the Planet, obviously. So why do you think the project only had one case file on its record?"

Sephiroth knew what Cloud was getting at. "I assumed the scientist who championed the project had purposely refrained from repeating it because of the difficulty of the method... but I suppose you are trying to tell me that the organic compounds he used... did not originate with the Planet?"

For a while, Cloud chose to remain silent. He stared at a vague spot on one side of the glass windows displaying the desolated terrain of another planet. Then slowly, he turned back to Sephiroth, and said, "Hojo did use something from another planet. Because these 'compounds' were limited, he couldn't do it on the thousands of people he probably wanted to, but he did have other subjects. It wasn't just you alone; although the effects on the others did not appear until a long time after you... were not there anymore. In the most severe cases... the subjects could completely synchronise with the alien parts inside them. I sometimes wonder if they absorbed the memories as well, because they seemed so adamant on making their home planet's history repeat on our Planet..." Cloud paused. "But I guess that answers my question. If the one and only successful subject has no recollection, then the ones that came after probably had no idea either, huh?"

"Is this another one of those things you are not supposed to tell me in case I go back in time and completely derail history?" Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. Normally, he would be panicking by now that someone had such intimate knowledge of the project that practically gave birth to him, but for some reason, he felt comfortable discussing it with Cloud.

"I guess you can say that?" Cloud was not entirely sure himself. "I think it's pretty unlikely Gaia's nice enough to let you remember anything when you return, but can't be too safe..."

Sephiroth hardly cared about what Gaia was or was not going to do. Instead he asked, "What was the point of bringing up the project, then? Am I perhaps to assume that the alien organic compounds used by Hojo are somehow related to the owner of this ship?"

Cloud gawked for a moment at Sephiroth's perception. He recovered quickly enough, coughing to draw attention away from his loss of composure. "Yes, and let's leave all the sordid details out for now. Have you noticed anything strange since stepping onboard? Any faint buzzing in your ears or something like that?"

Again, Sephiroth silently concentrated on his senses. Eventually, he shook his head. "No. The ship is quiet. And it feels quite peaceful."

"I see," Cloud nodded. "I browsed through a few of the ship's memories with the Bazookas while on my way down. Apparently, they were not able to fully utilise the ship because of what they complained was 'noise'. Something was 'buzzing' in their ear and interfering with their connection to the ship's controls. I assumed it was because the ship considered them foreign, though not necessarily belligerent. I have some of those organic compounds we were talking about just now too, which is why I hardly heard any buzzing and could control it better than them. But you - you grew up with those cells. You could probably do it better than me."

Of course, Sephiroth was extremely curious about what Cloud meant when he said he had those 'organic compounds' as well. But he decided to settle something else first. "So you mean you will let me have control of the ship?"

"Yes, but I had to make sure you wouldn't use it to destroy the Planet first," Cloud said gravely. Without missing a beat, he continued, "Since the ship obviously responds better to us, the chances of it belonging to the same planet where the source of our 'organic compounds' were from are quite high. Who knows what the original owner might have programmed the ship to do when it assumes it has stumbled upon one of its kind? I'm trying to avoid anymore unforeseen circumstances here, unless you want to be stuck in this time period forever."

The General made no comment on that, only shifting his weight so that he now faced the window displaying desolated snow plains. "Should I even question why you are going to allow me to drive this thing around, then?"

Cloud shrugged. "I've realised that Gaia can't reach you when you're synchronised with the ship. Not even a whisper. After all that Gaia's done to pull you and Zack here against your wills... let's just say I'm a fan of poetic justice and leave it at that, shall we?"

This made Sephiroth look over his shoulder. The duo shared a knowing look. Then the man turned back, smirking openly.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

x--x

"Vincent," Cloud said, as he stepped into the room his fellow mercenary was ruminating in. "Just to let you know, I'm going to hand control of the ship over the Sephiroth after the deliveries."

One could see Vincent's eyebrows rising way past his hairline, though nothing could be seen beneath the bandanna swathing his entire forehead. "And the reason being?"

Cloud was glad Vincent had not simply shot him with a tranquilliser upon that announcement. "The reason is, I've just about had enough of this entire thing."

Vincent blinked. "And the Planet?"

"Oh, I'm sure she doesn't agree," Cloud shrugged.

"And what do you intend to do about that?"

"Nothing?"

"This was the machine of the Crisis, Cloud," Vincent pressed on. "And you're giving it to her son? What if he destroys everything you've been trying so hard to protect all this time?"

Cloud looked at Vincent in the eye. "He won't."

"You sound very sure."

"Actually, I'm not," Cloud shrugged again. "But everyone deserves a second chance, don't you think?" He said meaningfully. "What's the worst thing that could happen, anyway?"

As the silence stretched, it was obvious both men were imagining the worst possible scenario happening.

"It's about trust, Vincent," Cloud broke the silence first. "He had that, and then he was betrayed. He never fully believed anything else again after that - not even when Zack tried to help. And the people around him - they trusted him to do a good job - they trusted he'd kill, maim, command, and conquer. But there was nothing else. Nobody trusted he had feelings like other humans. Nobody trusted that he was just like the rest of us. He didn't have to do anything else other than fight - they would do the rest for him. Who would not have subconsciously gotten on a pedestal after all that treatment? Why would he have bothered to reach out, if he wasn't allowed to be curious about anything? I want to trust him, even though I don't actually /want/ to. I need to know that I've done something rather than nothing, even though I know it's already too late for all that now. Do you understand, Vincent?"

Vincent had been listening quietly, and now he remained quiet as well, so that he could think. Finally, he acquiesced, saying, "All right. And needless to say, you'll be in charge of stopping him again, if anything happens, right?"

Cloud almost laughed out loud at that. "Vincent, when was I never?"

"Just making sure," Vincent said, a ghost of a smile on his face.

Cloud smiled as well. "Your trust in me pushed me to go on even when things felt pointless sometimes too, you know," he could not help but blurt.

"I know," Vincent replied pleasantly. "Because it works both ways."

x--x

The next morning, the ship was still busy gallivanting around the Planet, dropping former Bazooka trainees back to their hometowns. Cloud walked into the control room - which had become their impromptu gathering hall of sorts - to find Vincent and Zack poring over a game of something that looked like chess but was not quite chess.

"Zack," Cloud gasped without thinking. "You can play chess?!"

Zack turned away from the board, blinking at Cloud. "It's not really chess. Some board game from the home planet of wherever this ship came from. Hey, it's really cool!" He gleefully informed, picking up a chess piece and slamming it down on another area in the board.

The board lighted up and the piece combusted into dust.

"See?" Zack pointed. "If you place it on the wrong terrain, it'll be destroyed! This game allows you to literally destroy your own pieces! How cool is that?"

Vincent made no remark, only moving his own piece to another spot. The piece grew into a mouth and swallowed the other piece that was there.

"Okay," Cloud sighed. "I don't need a headache so early in the morning. What's happening? Is the ship on track?"

It was Vincent who replied. "Yes, it is. We should be able to reach the Seers by early noon today."

"All right," Cloud nodded. Then the next most logical question: "Where's Sephiroth?"

This time, Zack answered. "Stepped into the wall over there just a while after we started our game," he gestured at the 'wall over there', which was the spot leading into the corridor Cloud had been talking with Sephiroth the previous night. 

"Right," Cloud nodded. "Thanks."

Zack' response was to move a chess piece, which spontaneously combusted again. He cackled in glee.

"Are you trying to win the game, or let me win by decimating all your pieces in the most spectacular ways possible?" Vincent's amused question was the last thing Cloud heard before the wall zipped open and he stepped through, into the slightly dimmed corridor.

As he took a step forward, the wall slid shut silently. True enough, Sephiroth was standing there, staring at the side of the wall depicting the moon with his arms folded across his chest. He appeared deep in thought, but when Cloud moved closer, he suddenly spoke.

"When you first discovered this room, did you ever wonder what the owner of the ship preserved the scenes in this chamber for?" He asked.

Cloud blinked. In fact, he had never wondered about it before, merely assuming that her goal was to destroy all the planets she went to, and so these were just stark reminders. "No, I haven't," he admitted. "So what's your conclusion?"

"Hmm," Sephiroth mumbled. "It does not make sense. If she had been escaping her home planet because of its desolation, why would she constantly remind herself of the desolation itself?"

"What if the owner of the ship wasn't a good person?" Cloud asked quietly.

Sephiroth looked at him. "So you think these scenes were preserved for some malicious purpose?"

"I don't know," Cloud shook his head. "But it's not something we should rule out."

"Hmm," Sephiroth made that thoughtful noise again. "I think it's highly unlikely."

"What makes you so sure?"

Sephiroth actually frowned at the question. "The mood - for the lack of a better description. This ship, it feels calm, Cloud. It does not look or feel like a war machine. I've been looking through whatever information I have access to, and computers do not tell lies. The original pilot kept these images for a purpose. But I am quite sure it was not for something malevolent in nature."

Cloud considered that option. It sounded logical enough, and it was something he could not have thought of, where he came from. "I think you can find out once you become main pilot. This ship has a few layers of information stored in it, and I can access all but the final layer. Which just so happens to have the oldest data and control over certain areas in the ship which I don't even know where to start looking for. And since all passengers only have access to files the pilot has..."

"You are banking on the possibility that I may have access to whatever other treasures this ship may conceal," Sephiroth stated, as the corners of his lips quirked upwards in obvious amusement.

That was not what Cloud was banking on, but it sounded like a nice excuse. "Why not?" Cloud mused aloud. "I'm sure someone out there, some time down the road, would appreciate some alien relics enough to shell out a fortune for it. And then maybe I can finally retire and live the rest of my life in peace." Of course, his deadpan manner lent no credulity to his words at all, and that made Sephiroth chuckle a little.

"How should we go about this handing over of control thing?" Sephiroth got back into business. "Is there some grand ceremony I should attend?"

Cloud almost glared at the man. "Are you always so chipper in the morning?" He grumbled. Nevertheless, he continued, "It's not complicated at all. I tell the ship what to do in my head as usual, and it just happens. Like this."

Suddenly, the scenes of desolation flashed and melted away. On one side, a brightly lit field of what looked like flowers and food took over the bleak image of parched ground. On the other side, the moon now smiled upon a beautiful lake surrounded with towering greenery.

Cloud gawked rather conspicuously. He had not expected something like this to happen immediately after passing control. In fact, he would have been less surprised if the ship had simply suddenly self-destructed. He slowly turned to look for Sephiroth's reaction.

There was not much to see on Sephiroth's schooled features. However, the man spoke up soon enough. "You were wrong, Cloud," he said, derailing Cloud's thoughts as he wondered what he was wrong about. Sephiroth continued, "The original pilot didn't keep these images because she wanted to remind herself of the pain."

Cloud reached into the ship's now fully opened database and saw for himself the rest.

"She went on a journey to find a way to restore her homeland," Cloud remarked matter-of-factly. Now this was a scenario which he had not even vaguely considered. "The imagery was supposed to change when she stepped into this chamber. That was what she wanted to remind herself of." A pause. "And when she found the Ancients here, she thought she could finally achieve her goal, but..."

"They weren't amenable," Sephiroth nodded. "And when she failed to convince them to follow her even after trying everything she could, her desperation eventually drove her into insanity."

"I," Cloud started to say, "I've never imagined... that she would have a story to tell, too."

Sephiroth frowned. "You knew the pilot of the ship?"

"Not personally," Cloud shook his head. "Through the legends and stories. Well, this is probably not the best place to discuss that, but I'm glad. Sort of glad... that I found this out. I guess I should say thank you for that, huh?"

Sephiroth did not respond verbally, merely tilting his head slightly in acknowledgement. "I suppose we should be joining Zack and Vincent out there soon. The deliveries are almost done and we will be on our way to the Seers sooner than initially projected."

"Of course, the machine just had to speed up when you took over," Cloud smiled a little. But he complied and turned around to walk back out into the cockpit area, and he was followed soon by Sephiroth.

Once outside, Cloud declared, "We'll be at the Seers' place soon!"

Zack wasn't listening. He had just moved one of his chess pieces into yet another unsuitable territory, causing it to be buried by a landslide. He threw his head back and laughed happily.

Vincent looked up when Cloud made the declaration, but soon his attention turned back to the board again. He shook his head. "I don't actually need to do anything," he was saying. "He's doing a good enough job of destroying himself without any interference."

And just as Vincent finished saying that, Zack took his final piece and tossed it onto a slot marked as a rushing river.

They watched as the piece was swept away by the simulated current and subsequently fell down a torrential waterfall. It never resurfaced.

"This game is cool!" Zack decided, turning around to grin widely at his audience. "When we get back, you've got to somehow get Shinra to build something like this, General Sephiroth!"

"I am a general, not a game designer," Sephiroth reminded him.

"Yeah, but you can pull some really long strings," Zack reminded him right back.

"Zack would make a good instructor for such games," Vincent quipped.

Before anyone could say anything else, the ship shook violently.

"Do you think it's asking us to shut up?" Zack asked, after a long pause.

"Actually," Cloud sighed, "we've just arrived at the destination."

"Ah, right," Zack nodded. "I knew the ship can't be that smart."

The ship summarily teleported the SOLDIER out of the cockpit. A video image showed him appearing a few metres on top of the canopy of a large tree. Thereafter, there was a lot of free falling, branch breaking, yelps and finally a loud thud.

Cloud looked suspiciously at Sephiroth, who was poker-faced.

"Did you do that?" He finally asked.

Instead of answering the question, Sephiroth smiled mysteriously. "The Seers await us," was the only thing he eventually said, before teleporting everyone out of the cockpit as well.

This time on firmer ground, of course.

\--

"All right," Cloud managed to find a stone table to slam his hands on in the Seers' chamber, and did just that. "I'm not going to even blame you for forcing us to do your dirty work for you. But tell us - honestly, please - are you really capable of sending them back to the past, or are you just stringing us along?"

The Seers exchanged glances. Some of the minor Seers actually breathed out audible sighs of relief. It appeared they had been expecting a grand showdown of words and perhaps some kind of demolition. The Great Seers then said, "We are certainly pleased that..."

"No, stop," Cloud shook his head. "Just tell me yes or no. Please."

The Great Seer looked a little petulant that his grandiose speech was interrupted. Nevertheless, he continued, "Yes. We can send them back."

"But do you want to?" Vincent asked.

"The Planet has informed us that the threat has been neutralised," the Seer confirmed. "Their continued existence here will only serve to upset the delicate equilibrium of time and space, so yes. We do want to send them back. This has been a risky venture for us as well, if you must know."

All four warriors glanced at each other as they digested that. "So what's the procedure?" Cloud finally ventured to ask.

"I thought we needed the black and white materia for it," Zack interjected, before the Seers could reply. "Which we were supposed to be getting in our last trip out, if I might remind you."

"The fact is," the Great Seer cleared his throat, "you have always had it with you."

A stunned silence followed.

Broken only when the chocoboes, who had followed the foursome into the Temple, warked rather loudly.

Cloud stared at the two birds for a long, long time. Finally, he sighed and declared, "I feel stupid."

"I had a feeling," Vincent quipped, but did not complete his sentence.

"I thought so," Sephiroth nodded.

"I err... what's going on?" Zack blinked.

"It's them," Cloud answered, pointing at the two birds. "They have the materia. Or rather, maybe I should say they ARE the materia?"

"I didn't know there were chocobo-shaped materia," Zack blinked again. The black chocobo warked as if in indignation. "And it warbles like one, too."

"I didn't know that either," Cloud agreed. Turning back to the Seers, he asked, "And are we supposed to equip them like normal materia and hope the ritual or whatever you're going to perform will somehow work?"

The Seers actually had the audacity to look quite amused by the suggestion. "No," one Seer finally said, "we'll have to extract them from the birds first, of course. Materia is a medium, and while inside the chocoboes they cannot act as the medium they are supposed to be."

"Putting aside how many laws of nature this whole thing violates," Zack, who was beginning to get the picture, said, "HOW then are you going to extract the materia out from them? It's not going to result in any dead birds, I hope?"

The others, having not thought about that possibility, narrowed their eyes at the Seers. While the birds had been two parts clingy and seven parts helpful, they were also one part adorable, and no one - not even hardened warriors - would stand for seeing cute and helpless creatures die for their sake! Never!

"No dead birds," the Great Seer confirmed, upon feeling the air freeze up. "Look beyond where hearts can see, my friends, and you will find there is nothing to worry about at all."

A green glow had slowly surrounded the two chocoboes, lifting them gently into the air. Surprised, the birds flapped their wings and warked for help. In the next moment, however, the glow intensified and blinded all present for a split second.

When the piercing light subsided, all that was left were two chirping, normal-looking baby gold chocoboes, and two luminous materia on the floor in front of them.

Vincent, who was the closest, walked forward and retrieved the two materia. The two chocoboes were in a slight daze, so he left them alone for now. He examined the two materia. The power held within could be felt. He turned towards Cloud, and nodded at him.

"They are the real black and white materia," the Great Seer smiled down at the four. "You can all return to where you belong now."

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
07sep2011


	29. Chapter 29

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. 

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Twenty-Nine  
Second chances will not be the same, they will be better.

 

The air outside the Ancient Temple had never felt so fresh before.

Cloud found himself looking up at the peak of the Temple, remembering all the times he had to come here. He knew he probably would have to again, some time in the future, but at least the huge weight on his shoulders had lifted, and breathing was a lot easier now.

The view had not changed at all, he observed.

Except, of course, for the cannon on top of the Temple, its barrel diameter almost as large as the width of the temple itself.

"Why aren't you taking that cannon away yet?" Cloud frowned and asked Sephiroth. The SOLDIER had suggested transforming the ship into a giant weapon aimed at the Temple, for bargaining purposes - just in case. Thankfully they achieved their goal without having to mention that to the Seers at all, but for some reason, the cannon was still there.

"Just in case, just in case," Sephiroth answered, smiling mysteriously, but nevertheless dispelling the illusion of the giant cannon. The ship now hovered above the temple in all its streamlined, gleaming glory. He was enjoying playing around with the ship way too much, Cloud thought, almost wanting to roll his eyes. Like a boy who had just received his first electric toy car. Yes, exactly like a boy who had just received his first electric toy car.

"So we activate both materia at the same time, and poof, we'll be back in the past?" Ahead of them, Zack was asking Vincent.

"So the Seers say," Vincent confirmed.

"What if we accidentally miss the timing?" The SOLDIER wondered out loud.

"Then you will summon a giant piece of space rock, but that's all right, because Holy will be there to stop it anyway," Vincent announced monotonously. "And then you'll just have to try again until you get the timing right. Or the Planet gets destroyed. Whichever comes first."

"That was a bit too detailed for a joke..." Zack shuddered a little, but didn't think pressing further was a good idea. "Hey, you know what?" He then turned around and got everyone else involved in the conversation. It was amazing how the two newly babyfied chocoboes fit so well into his overall image of cheer. "Do we even HAVE to go back now? Can we stay for a while more? Still many places I wanna see, you know?"

Cloud and Vincent were both visibly taken aback, although Sephiroth did not as much as twitch a face muscle. Zack was all smiles as he awaited a reply.

"I'm not sure..." Cloud eventually answered. "Didn't the Seers mention something about it being dangerous if you continued to stay?"

"Oh please, and you believe those spoilsports?" Zack shook his head. "What's the worst that could possibly happen anyway?" At that, Vincent opened his mouth to answer, but Zack stopped him. "No, you, don't even think of saying anything!" He turned to Cloud, beaming. "Well?"

"Well..." Cloud began slowly, "I know you're going to stay whether I say it will end up destroying the Planet or not, so why am I even bothering to answer you, I wonder?"

Zack threw the two warking chocoboes at him. "Glad you know me so well!"

"Have you forgotten something, SOLDIER Zack?" A deep, booming voice suddenly enquired.

"Eep!" Zack jumped and instinctively hid behind Cloud's small frame. "Sorry, General, sir. But somehow I get the feeling you might want to stay too. After all, you just got a shiny new toy..."

Sephiroth did not answer immediately, except to bow his head slightly in contemplation. Then he turned to Cloud and asked, "Is it true that we will have no remembrance of our time here when we return?"

"Yes," Cloud nodded. "It would be a really big problem otherwise, I think."

The General nodded as well, accepting the answer without a word. He then looked at Zack. "In that case, SOLDIER, you have permission to stay..."

"Oh yes!" Zack leapt out from behind Cloud and started to dance in joy.

"I haven't finished," Sephiroth interrupted his victory dance. The SOLDIER deflated slightly. "We will not spend an indefinite amount of time here. There are things to do back in HQ, in case you have forgotten."

"But we can ask the Planet, or Lifestream, or... whatever it is that's sending us back, to put us back in the exact day we came!" Zack whined, but Sephiroth was already walking off, to where he had parked the ship. Zack quickly followed. "Come on! You know that we..." And their conversation trailed off into the thick foliage and occasional breeze.

Vincent walked towards Cloud, who was looking in the direction of the ship. "Are you sure we should be allowing them to stay?"

Cloud shrugged. "They're not children. I can't stop them from doing what they want. And do you really think Zack would let me dissuade him, anyway?"

"Point," Vincent nodded gravely. "What do you intend to do, then?"

Cloud frowned at his friend. "What do you mean?"

"You know we don't have to follow them," Vincent pointed out. "They have the materia and the method. They can find their own way home now, or whenever they want. And they have transportation too, should they wish to stay here for a bit longer. If we disappeared from their lives right now, they wouldn't miss us. They don't need us anymore, Cloud," the man stressed.

At first, Cloud simply stared at Vincent. After a while, though, as if in acknowledgement, he bowed his head low.

"You're right, Vincent," Cloud said. "You're absolutely right."

x-x

On the ship, Zack and Sephiroth had somehow thrashed out the details of their stay in the future. Obviously, Zack couldn't be allowed to stay for as long as he wanted, even if they could make sure (and they couldn't) they returned to the same day they had been plucked out from. So Sephiroth allowed him to stay the number of paid annual vacation days Zack still had on file, and he would cut those days off once they returned.

Zack only had three days of paid vacation left for the year.

After a long and rambling grumbling session, Zack asked, "Where's Cloud?"

Sephiroth looked puzzled at this. "Are they not still outside?"

"Well that won't do," Zack immediately rose. "He's our guide for the next three days! Can't have him bailing on us now!" With that, he hopped off the ship in search of his friend.

Not a minute after that, Zack dashed right back into the ship.

"They're gone!" He wailed, waving a piece of paper around in the air frantically. "And they left this message behind!"

Sephiroth merely raised an eyebrow. He took the paper and scanned through it wordlessly. He had to restrain himself from laughing.

Because the message went something like this:

"Congratulations for winning an all-expenses paid (by yourself) guided tour around the Planet!

To begin guided tour, please direct ship to Kalm using scenic route. Teleportation is not allowed. The Frozen Prince awaits."

"What do you think they're up to?" Zack asked in a panicky manner.

Sephiroth returned the paper to him and shrugged. "You wanted a guide, didn't you? Looks like you got your wish."

x--x

And thus the two SOLDIERs obediently told the ship to set off for Kalm using the scenic route. It was to both their surprises when they found out there really was an air route called "The Scenic Route". It went around the entire planet and the sequence of stops was Woodlands, Cactus Island (An army of walking cactuses?! ~by an incredulous Z.F.), Cosmo Canyon (Bugenhagen's telescope had been modified and replaced with something so massive, the ship almost ran into it), Wutai, the Chocobo Farm, and finally, Kalm (after which it would go to the Icicle Inn, Mideel, and back to Woodlands. Rinse, lather, repeat).

They parked their ship at a discreet spot, got it to turn invisible, and stepped into Kalm Town.

"So where do we go now?" Zack asked.

"Sight-seeing?" Sephiroth answered.

"What? Aren't we supposed to look for Cloud and Vincent?"

Sephiroth actually laughed. "Didn't you read their message?"

"Yeah, guided tour and everything. We start in Kalm, right? So we need to find them!"

Sephiroth shook his head. "Whoever said you had to have a tour guide to go on a guided tour?" He started walking, forcing Zack to follow along. Soon, they were in front of the doors to the Great Kalm Library. Nostalgia washed over Sephiroth.

"That is one huge building," Zack commented, trying to see where one side of the building started and where it ended.

"It's a library," Sephiroth explained.

Zack gasped. "No way! Who could finish reading so many books in their lifetime?"

"Nobody," Sephiroth replied, "which is why we carefully select the better ones - a skill you would do well to pick up, Zack." After saying his piece, he moved towards the opened doors and walked through them into the library proper. He was, needless to say, followed by a slightly pouting Zack.

Once inside, Sephiroth started looking around for the small machine that showed the layout of the library. He located one soon enough, found the section he wanted to go to, and started walking again, silent all the time. Zack trailed like a lost puppy, but he trusted that his general knew what he was doing (most of the time, anyway), so he held back from questioning Sephiroth until they at least arrived at whatever destination they were supposed to arrive at.

They arrived in front of a tall shelf in the Humanities Section. Sephiroth went right up to a row of books and pulled a dark, leather-bound book without any hesitation whatsoever.

Curious, Zack tried to looked over his shoulder. "What's that?"

At first, Sephiroth did not answer. He simply flipped open the book to a page with the title, 'The Frozen Prince'. There was a baby chocobo feather wedged between the pages. "Bingo," he smiled.

"Hey, that's what they wrote on the message," Zack blinked. He went silent for a few moments. "Don't tell me... they're trying to lead us around on a treasure hunt?" His eyes visibly brightened at that notion.

"It's a guided tour, Zack," Sephiroth responded, taking the book to the checkout counter. "It's a guided tour."

After they had left the library with the book, Sephiroth handed it over to Zack. "Read that story," he commanded. "Our itinerary is listed there."

"Somehow, I find that hard to believe," Zack shook his head, but opened to the page where the chocobo feather was and began to read anyway.

By the time they had gotten back, Zack had finished reading the story. Sephiroth waited for him to declare how silly the entire situation was, but was pleasantly surprised to find that Zack was in deep thought instead.

"All right, I think I get it now," the SOLDIER said after a long silence. "We're supposed to follow the footsteps of this frozen prince guy in the story, right? And sightsee while we're at it? Most probably there will be more clues as to what we should be doing when we get to the actual destination?"

"Excellent, SOLDIER," Sephiroth nodded in approval. "I always knew you had it in you. So where is our first destination?"

Zack looked at at him strangely. "You should know, why ask me?"

"Because you are the one who wants to go on this guided tour," Sephiroth intoned. Zack had to duck his head and stick his tongue out in acknowledgement.

"Well, yeah, thanks for offering to be the driver," he pat Sephiroth on his back good-naturedly, earning himself a disinterested stare. He looked back at the book. "Let me see... the frozen prince went around looking for a bride in seven countries. That's probably the seven destinations we'll be heading for, then. He first went to..." Zack scratched his head, "the kingdom of underwater labyrinths?"

"Midgar," Sephiroth decided that Zack probably needed help with the first one. "It's currently underwater, in the present timeline."

Zack gaped. "Wow, really?!" He started to bounce. "That I gotta see! Lead the way, general, sir!"

Sephiroth simply shook his head. But it was for the better. He did want to see Midgar again, now that everything was over. They never did get to explore the Bazookas' hideout in the ruins. Although he now knew that it had caved in when the Planet was manipulating him to do their dirty work. Still, the complex was around, and surely there was something else to explore in there.

The ship set off for Midgar against the bright rays of the midday sun. It cruised along at a comfortable speed, until they reached the current Ruins area. Zack whistled and shook his head as they hovered over the watery grave where Midgar used to be located.

Then they dived in, and Zack was stunned into complete silence.

You knew something had to be wrong when Sephiroth was the one to alleviate the tension in the air by speaking up first. "The Planet had been protecting it with a natural shield, but I see that they've taken it down. It won't be long before someone discovers these ruins and converts it into an amusement park or museum, I suppose."

Zack had his entire face pressed against the see-through windows of the cockpit. "It's strangely beautiful," he commented, "in an eerie, nostalgic manner."

"Yes, it does evoke feelings of that sort."

They circled the ruins of Midgar slowly, taking in the sights of what was once a great empire that ruled most of the Planet. Well, it was STILL a great empire ruling over most of the Planet where they came from, but that it would not last through the generations was a sobering reminder of how quickly world conditions could change.

"I wonder how long ago did this happen?" Zack gestured at the crumbling, subaquatic ruins.

"The destruction? Or the submersion?" Sephiroth asked.

"Err... Is there a difference?" Zack blinked.

"Quite so," Sephiroth nodded. "Midgar was destroyed, according to Cloud, when someone summoned something called Meteor. The destroyed town was apparently submerged after a period of time known as the Century War. All in all, a few thousand years ago, if memory serves, but each incident was quite far apart from the other."

Zack had nothing to say in reply, so he didn't. He watched the landscape closely. "Hey! I wonder what the SOLDIER floor looks like now?!" He suddenly exclaimed.

Looking at the once proud building that was on the verge of disintegrating, Sephiroth wondered if they could even FIND the SOLDIER floor.

"Do you think the ship could try to look for it?" Zack pleaded as he started bouncing again. "Pretty please? I'm really curious!"

"Why not?" Sephiroth shrugged, taking Zack aback. "That's the whole point of having a guided tour, isn't it?" He smirked at his subordinate, who blinked once and then grinned from ear to ear.

"I think I like you better this way, sir," was his cheeky response.

It turned out there was really nothing of interest to see in the what was formerly the SOLDIER floor. Or what Zack thought was formerly the SOLDIER floor, anyway. They even had the ship blast beams of bright light through the ancient building, but it remained as it was - a block of cold, wet cement that had seen better days.

While they were there, they got the ship to transform into a vehicle small enough to pass through the broken windows. Then they entered the building and even went into the SOLDIER training room. Zack even tried to start up the simulation program, but all that resulted in was the garbled sound of a button being pressed underwater several times. They checked the other floors, but after a while it grew rather depressing, so they went back outside.

After that, they continued to explore the compound, until Zack was satisfied that there was nothing else to see.

"Besides a few scared sharks, we couldn't find anything else," the SOLDIER commented, flipping open the fairytale book to check where their next destination would be.

"We also found a very well-preserved picture of President Shinra," Sephiroth pointed out, and Zack almost fell over himself.

"Don't remind me!" He cried. "No machines or furniture survived but his picture did! What in the world did he use on it, anyway? Actually, I'm more interested in knowing how much budget he blew on that..."

"Certainly shows where his priorities lie, in any case," the General commented good-naturedly, then became silent. In a more sombre voice, he continued, "Did you notice that there were no other pictures of other presidents?"

Zack looked up from the book and regarded Sephiroth carefully. He was reading between the lines of Sephiroth's question and did not like what he found out. "That means there were no other presidents after him?" He shook his head. "Maybe he just made a rule that they can only display his portrait in the building?"

"What are the chances his successor would enforce that rule after his abdication?"

Zack saw that Sephiroth had a point. "Then..."

Sephiroth nodded gravely.

"There's a high possibility Shinra's reign ends in our generation."

Although the general had said the words quite matter-of-factly, Zack found that possibility difficult to entertain.

He could not imagine anyone defeating Sephiroth, short of Sephiroth himself. And since Shinra had Sephiroth on their side...

"Well, no point musing on past history," he eventually shrugged and returned his attention to the book. "Or the unknown future, depending on which point of view you prefer."

Sephiroth simply smiled to himself.

"Our next destination is the kingdom of man-eating flowers."

Now this was a location Sephiroth readily admitted he had no idea about. The only man-eating flower he knew of - if you could call it a man-eating flower - was the horrific Malboro up north and its putrid breath attack. As he was contemplating, something in the distance caught his eye.

"What's that?" Zack spoke first, evidently having seen the thing as well.

Sephiroth directed the ship closer. There was something shimmering in the ocean. And it didn't look like it was just shards of a broken mirror catching some sunlight that had managed to make its way down into the recesses of this part of the ocean.

Then the shimmering thing moved and whisked past the ship's cockpit, letting both SOLDIERs catch a perfect view of its scintillating scales.

"Hey, I know that thing!" Zack exclaimed. "I saw it in a Wutai shrine before! It's that snakey thing that's always placed on top of a bowl of water, you know?" He racked his brains for the right word. "I think they call it..."

"Leviathan," Sephiroth helpfully supplied.

"Right! Leviathan!" Zack nodded enthusiastically.

Leviathan made one graceful round around the ship and reappeared on the other side of the cockpit. This time, it stopped and gave the people in the ship a beady stare.

Then vanished.

After a pronounced silence, Zack remarked, "Well, that wasn't strange and mysterious at all."

Sephiroth, however, was deep in thought. "Wait," he suddenly spoke up. "I think that was Cloud's doing. Or Vincent's."

Zack gave him a wide-eyed stare. "How can you tell?"

Sephiroth pointed at a particular golden feather, floating about in the water where Leviathan had been.

"I know he looks like one, but Cloud doesn't actually have feathers-"

"It's the same one we found in the book," Sephiroth shook his head in disbelief at his lieutenant.

"Oh, right," Zack nodded away. "I knew that, of course!" He laughed, turning to the page where the feather had been placed. He looked at it, then at the one floating in the water. "Indeed it looks similar. In fact... it looks like the feather of a baby gold chocobo..." The SOLDIER jerked his head upwards to gape at his superior. "The baby chocoboes! They went with Cloud! And he's de-feathering them! How could he! That's almost cannibalism!"

"Listen to yourself, SOLDIER," Sephiroth found himself shaking his head again. "Birds molt, you know."

"Yeah, I do," Zack grinned, his previous sentences obviously jokes to lighten the atmosphere. "Why would he be leaving them all over the place, though?"

"For the guided tour maybe?"

"Argh! Stop harping on that!" Zack threw his hands up in frustration. "I wanted a guided tour, not a complicated treasure hunt!"

"Hmm," Sephiroth made a noncommittal sound. "What other kingdoms did that frozen prince visit?" He suddenly asked.

"Eh?" Zack turned to look at his companion. Then he looked down at the storybook and briefly flipped through the pages. "The kingdoms of hidden waterfalls... space and dreams... undisturbed seashells... silent reflections... five terraces... and that's all."

Sephiroth perked up from his brooding pose. "That's it," he pointed out. "That's our next destination."

"Huh? What?" Zack looked at him. "I wasn't paying attention, which one? How do you even know what all these kingdoms are supposed to be representing, anyway?"

"I don't know them all, to be honest," Sephiroth admitted, and this induced an incredulous gasp from his aide. "But five terraces is definitely Wutai."

It was as if a lightbulb suddenly lit up above Zack's head. "Right!" He became excited all over again. "That's what Wutai means in their native tongue, doesn't it?"

"Yes, that and the fact that Cloud sent their patron deity to appear before us," Sephiroth added.

"So our next destination is Wutai?"

"So it would seem."

So off they went.

x--x

Wutai was still the large island west of everyone else (from a certain perspective, anyway) in this time and era, Sephiroth and Zack soon figured out. However, unlike the peaceful archipelago it used to be, the area south of the main Wutai town was now dotted with active volcanoes. It made for quite an impressive sight when the SOLDIERs were cruising over the area. Especially since it was now dusk. The dimmer sunlight made the swollen lava glow angrily, looking all the more ferocious.

"Wutai had mountains. But not these mountains," Zack was saying.

"It HAS been a few thousand years. Something would have changed."

"Is there still a town up north, though?" Now Zack was starting to worry. Although they were currently in a war against the nation (back in their own timeline, that is), he did like their quirky house designs and exotic food. And the people. When he wasn't in uniform, he'd blended in quite well with his hair and international looks.

And he'd found out that deep down, they were all just humans doing their best to survive - whether they were fighting for Shinra or Wutai.

The ship crossed the middle chain of mountains dividing north and south Wutai. Soon, they were racing towards a large area filled with tiled houses and slanted roofs. "I guess that answers my question," Zack grinned.

They parked the ship up on a low mountain ledge nearby, disembarked, and started walking towards the main gates of the town. Both SOLDIERs were quiet and subdued as they approached the guard house.

The guard took one look at them and simply waved them inside.

So they walked on and finally found themselves looking at the ancient town of Wutai, still bustling with activities despite the time of the day, still looking the same as it was a few thousand years ago.

"This feels strange," Zack just had to say, as they ambled through the streets and watched people go about their daily affairs. "Wasn't it just yesterday we were doing all we could to crush this place into dust?" Of course, he kept his volume as low as he could when saying that last part.

Sephiroth said nothing. They eventually turned a corner and reached what seemed like the central square of the town. There was some sort of a festival going on, for the traditional yatai - food and game booths - were out in full force.

Needless to say, Zack insisted on trying out some of them.

While he won the punching bag game, he completely flunked the rifle game. Zack kept swearing the rifle was rigged, so Sephiroth took over and shot down the chocobo stuffed toy Zack had been aiming for to verify the truthfulness of his claims. As he handed the stuffed toy to an aghast Zack, he smirked and told him he could arrange for Zack to attend some extra sharpshooting lessons when they got back, if he liked.

Zack's answer was to throw the toy back into Sephiroth's face.

As the cover of night took over, and lanterns started being lighted, the duo had almost finished visiting all the booths and were lingering about near the entrance of a very large shrine. Zack was biting into a malted apple and Sephiroth was simply looking at the hordes of people thronging into the obscenely large hall of the shrine.

"There's a waterway at the back of the shrine," Zack was saying, "and the people are going there to make wishes."

"The water wish festival of Wutai," Sephiroth nodded in acknowledgement. "I've only ever read about it."

"It's amazing they've managed to resurrect the festival a few thousand years down the line." Zack was halfway through his malted apple by now. "What was the legend about again? Leviathan appeared to a teen who just had a bad day and granted him the wish to become the king of a mighty nation, or something?"

"Probably," Sephiroth said, with a smile. "Nobody knows the true story, of course. More likely than not, someone simply summoned the creature and got it to destroy something."

"Spoilsport," Zack grinned. "Wanna go see the waterway?" He wasn't waiting for an answer, though, for he had already started moving along with the crowd.

"Might as well," Sephiroth unfolded his arms, straightened himself, and followed.

It turned out the entire back of the shrine opened up to the waterway, which was by then filled with paper boats. Some had affixed candles onto their boats, and the little lamps making their way downstream slowly was a sight to behold, especially at this volume.

"It feels like a second chance," Zack blurted out. Sephiroth looked at him, and he continued, saying, "You know. For us and Wutai. What we could have been, could have seen and heard, could have experienced... if we had tried harder to make friends with them instead of enemies." He stretched his hands above his head, taking in the sights and revelling in the sounds of cicadas chirping their tunes. "Second chances just aren't the same, are they?"

"Second chances will not be the same," Sephiroth agreed, "they will be better."

Whether he was talking about Wutai or himself, even he had no idea.

x--x

After spending the night in one of the Wutai inns (For the full tourist experience! ~by Z.F.), Zack and Sephiroth returned to the ship and examined the fairytale again to determine where their next destination was supposed to be.

"Since Cloud's not giving us any clues in Wutai, I suppose we get to randomly choose something?" Zack was wondering out loud.

"Maybe he did leave a clue," Sephiroth replied.

"I haven't seen any baby gold chocobo feathers around," Zack frowned.

"But he left us another clue, didn't he?" Sephiroth smiled.

Zack got to pondering. Then, "You mean... Leviathan?"

Sephiroth's smile widened fractionally.

"You're terrible," Zack complained. "Couldn't you have just told me?"

"Again, this is your treasure hunt, Zack," Sephiroth pointed out, a tad too gleefully, though it was still barely perceptible.

"Gee, thanks for nothing," the SOLDIER scoffed, but instantly brightened. "Hey! I remember there was this cave even back from our time that's like, the ultimate shrine to Leviathan. Think we might find our next clue there?"

"If it's still around, maybe," was Sephiroth's neutral reply.

"No harm trying," Zack shrugged, and hopped off where he had been perched. "I can still vaguely remember where it is, but we'll need to trek."

The ship obediently opened up an exit. After the SOLDIERs disembarked, they headed for town again. The only way up to the mountain with the 'ultimate shrine to Leviathan', as Zack had so aptly worded it, was through town, after all.

Unfortunately, when they arrived at the spot where the entrance used to be, there was no entrance anymore, just a lot of debris and a dilapidated altar of sorts stationed in front of the rubble.

"Well I guess that's that," Zack huffed, placing his arms akimbo.

Sephiroth was about to say something as well, but another voice interrupted him before he could begin. "Here to make a wish, lads?" The aged voice asked. The SOLDIERs turned to look at the old woodcutter who had appeared from the other side of the mountain trail, a basket of twigs and logs on his back.

The duo looked at each other, wondering what they should say. But the man spoke once more, relieving them of that complication. "There's a wishing stone on that altar. But as you can see from the state of that thing, it's obviously not very effective!" The man laughed, as if he had just cracked a very funny joke. It was all the SOLDIERs to do to stop themselves from staring too openly at the friendly but rather eccentric woodcutter. "Have fun!" The old man waved, and continued his trek down the mountain trail.

After watching him disappear around the bend, the two of them turned to look at each other. As if on cue, they shrugged at the same time.

"Let's take a look at that wishing stone," Sephiroth had already begun walking. In fact, he already had an idea what that 'wishing stone' could be.

And he was not disappointed, for as he neared the altar, he saw that there was a red materia wedged between the two prongs of an ornate orb holder which had certainly seen better days. The old woodcutter was not joking when he said it didn't seem all that effective. Nobody seemed to even want to do maintenance on the thing. Although, the materia was looking as bright and happy as the day it was born.

"So how do we make wishes?" Zack was at the altar as well. He reached out and tried taking the orb holder into his hands, but it wouldn't budge. He then tried to remove the summon materia from between the prongs, but it wouldn't budge either.

"Maybe you could try circling the mountain a few dozen times while reciting a Wutaian poem backwards," Sephiroth suggested.

"Ha ha, very funny sir," Zack paused. "Hey, the materia's still alive."

"Oh?" Sephiroth was suddenly very interested. "What does it summon?"

"Hmmm..." Zack made a sound like he was brooding. "I can't really tell... there are... quite a lot of them..."

Sephiroth motioned for Zack to step aside, which he did. He then put his hand on the materia and searched for its dwellers. "Oh," he eventually said, sounding like he was part confused and part amused. "It's them."

"Who?"

Without making a reply, Sephiroth simply summoned 'them'.

In an instant, the duo found themselves being surrounded by thirteen hulking, armoured knights.

"Hey, stop pushing me!" One of the knights told another. "This path is small enough as it is!"

"YOU stop pushing me!" The other knight retorted.

In the background, a knight fell down from where he had been attempting to perch on the steep wall of the mountain.

The largest knight of them all sighed and stepped forward. "Please excuse my most distinguished followers. We were not expecting to land in such a narrow location."

"King Arthur," Sephiroth nodded in acknowledgement of the leader of the knights. "Whatever is your materia doing here?"

"Needless to say, young Cloud Strife put it there," King Arthur replied. "I believe you people are playing a game?"

"A treasure hunt!" Zack protested. "Wait, I mean, a guided tour!"

King Arthur remained silent for a while. Perhaps he was pondering about Zack's outburst. Perhaps he had fallen asleep. Whatever the case, when he came to a few seconds later, he brandished a book from beneath his cape and handed it to Sephiroth.

"And that shall put an end to my duty for now," the majestic summon bowed slightly, followed by his other knights. "Do remember to remove the materia and return it to the young Cloud Strife," he stated. Then in a swirl of billowing capes, they were all gone.

Sephiroth looked at the book in his hands. It was a book about rocket science. With a baby chocobo feather peeking out from between the pages.

"What was that all about?" Zack wondered out loud as he approached Sephiroth. Glancing at the book, he laughed. "What? Is he implying you need to be smarter or something?"

"Wrong answer, SOLDIER," Sephiroth thrust the book to him instead.

"Oh wait, don't say it!" Zack held a hand out. He looked at the book again. "Rocket Town...?"

"Excellent perception," the General nodded in approval, picking the summon materia out from the holder with a bit of straining. "Apparently, that will be our next destination."

"Wait, what's Rocket Town?!" Zack exclaimed. "We had a Rocket Town during our era?"

Sephiroth stopped in midstep (he had started walking down the mountain trail). Turning to stare at his subordinate, he asked in a serious tone of voice, "Have you ever accessed the SOLDIER 1st classified files since your promotion?"

Zack blinked. "Uhh... I wasn't told about them..."

Well, considering Zack was promoted when they were in the middle of a crisis, Sephiroth couldn't say he blamed him. He did, however, knew he had to have a word with the administration department once they got back. "It's the site of the failed space program Shinra once invested in. Since it ended up in failure, Shinra tried their best to cover it up, viewing it as a mark on their otherwise pristine record of successes. If I remember correctly, it was just north of a town called Nibelheim."

"Ooh..." Zack nodded as Sephiroth explained. "Hey! That's where Cloud grew up!"

Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow. "Rocket Town?"

"No, the other one. Nibelheim."

"I see," Sephiroth filed that piece of information away for future use. Then he decided that since they were going to forget everything anyway, it was really pointless to do so, and thus promptly forgot about it.

Right now, all they had to do was to concentrate on going to the next destination, enjoying the sights of the future world while they were at it.

 

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14mar2012


	30. Chapter 30

Final Fantasy VII (c) Square Enix. Character design by Nomura Tetsuya. No profit is being made out of this fanwork. 

 

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Sojourners  
x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
Chapter Thirty  
The end is only the beginning.

 

There were no rockets in Rocket Town in this era. In fact, it didn't even go by the name of Rocket Town anymore. As Sephiroth and Zack quickly found out, Somnium City was now the world centre of education, science and technology. The city hall even had a subtitle for the place - The City Where Dreams Take Flight. Considering what it was and all that it supposedly represented, the subtitle did make quite a lot of sense. The narcissistic implications still shone through, though.

"This should be the kingdom of wishes and dreams, then," Zack was looking at the book in his hands. "So it's three down, four more to go. And we only have two more days, because my superior refuses to let me stay on longer. Woe, oh woe!"

Sephiroth pointedly ignored the backhanded complaint. He was looking at the skyscrapers that literally cut into the clouds, impressed. And they thought the Shinra Building was tall.

"There's a musuem here," Zack said, while looking at a signpost tree. "I'm curious. Let's go there first!" He was already bounding off in the direction of the building.

Sephiroth was curious as well, so he said nothing and followed.

The museum was in the shape of a semi-sphere. Mini semi-spheres surrounded the largest one, almost as if it was a parody of the solar system. Zack approached the nearest mini semi-sphere - mini in the relative sense of the word, when compared to the gargantuan sphere in the middle - and stepped through the entrance.

He was transported to an observatory on one of the highest buildings in the city. "Whoooa!" He could not stop himself from shouting, scaring the few other tourists who were also in the observatory. He ran towards the full length glass windows and pressed his face against it, taking in the sights below.

Sephiroth stepped into the area soon after. He glanced around himself first, then located Zack and walked over to join him.

What he saw was nothing short of breathtaking.

They were high enough that they could see clouds moving by at eye-level, but not quite high enough for the clouds to block their view of the ground below. At this height, any vehicle or moving object seemed like a tiny dot on a large surface. The buildings also looked different up here than down there. The most interesting part was that there were tiny carts moving around in midair, carrying passengers. If Sephiroth looked carefully, he could barely make out the translucent rail tracks the carts were moving on.

Then there were the tiny planes that flew around without rails. They weaved skillfully through the cracks between buildings, diving and rising with expert ease. All in all, it made for a surreal scene. Perhaps the city's subtitle had nothing to do with intangible dreams, after all.

"Okay, I've seen enough," Zack suddenly declared. "Now I wanna go ride on one of those carts!" With that gleeful parting shot, he scampered off towards the portal door they had come from.

Sephiroth was not quite sure where Zack ended up after that, but as for himself, he returned to the museum, visited all the other spheres, and eventually made his way back to the ship, trusting that Zack was smart enough to remember where the ship was parked.

About a couple of hours after noon, Zack finally showed up at the ship. With a ton of food and a strange looking device.

"Guess what I bought?" He asked excitedly.

Sephiroth turned away from the ship's monitor (which was displaying some sort of literature in ancient script) and stared. "Lunch, apparently," he eventually replied. "And a strange looking device."

Zack tsked. "It's a globe."

"A globe?"

"Yes. You know, that thing that's a 3D map of the world?"

"I know what a globe is, SOLDIER. WHY did you buy a globe?"

At this, Zack shook his head in mock disbelief. "This isn't an ordinary globe!" He paused for dramatic effect. "It's supposed to point us to where we need to go next."

Sephiroth waited for the explanation.

"Oh, can't you take a hint?" Zack grumbled, when the silence stretched far longer than he was comfortable. "This is where you're supposed to be asking me, 'But how?', or 'Why are you such a genius?'!"

"I'm still waiting for the explanation," Sephiroth reminded, turning back to the literature on the screen in the meantime.

"Okay, okay," Zack strode forward and put the globe on a table that spontaneously sprouted from the deck of the cockpit. "Whoa, cool. Thanks, ship!" He pat the table. "So, apparently, you'll just have put something into this opening over here," he combed through his hair and found a loose strand. Then he dropped it into the inch wide round opening on the top of the globe, "and the globe will tell you exactly where the closest similar object is located!"

The globe started swirling around even as Zack spoke. Soon it came to a stop, and the area where Somnium City was located in lit up with a soft yellow glow.

"Of course, it's not exactly pinpoint accuracy, but we should be able to at least get the general vicinity."

"Well, I must commend you for being clever this time, I suppose," Sephiroth nodded gravely to himself. It looks like Zack could be taught after all.

"Actually, almost every tourist buys one of these things when they come here," Zack explained. "So I guess that's probably what Cloud was aiming for as well. I mean, we're not THAT dense, guffaw!"

Sephiroth's high hopes fell, though a resigned sigh was all the evidence he showed.

"Stop doing that, boss. You'll get balder faster," Zack was already flipping through the book about rocket science. He found what he was looking for - the chocobo feather - and set the book aside after that. "Here goes nothing!"

Once the feather was inserted, the globe started its high-speed spinning. It eventually came to a stop. The area just southeast of Somnium glowed yellow.

"That's gotta be Nibelheim," Zack announced, after squinting at the globe a little.

Sephiroth took one look at the globe and disagreed. "Nibelheim's not that far southeast from here. It looks more like the halfway point between Nibelheim and the Goldsaucer."

"Hmm... now that you mention it," Zack looked closer. "I remember that area. I used to wonder why there was a ring of mountains there, and what was within the ring."

"Water, apparently," Sephiroth answered. "We've flown over it a few times before, but since it's all water and mountain, there wasn't any way to land. Not that Shinra's interested, anyway."

"Typical," Zack set the globe aside. "I guess that's our next stop then."

The ship rose to the air, and they were out of the Somnium airspace in no time.

x--x

The trip down to the "ring of mountains", as Zack had described, was short and fast. They arrived at the peaceful place in no time at all, and after finding a cliff ledge they could perch the ship on, disembarked. The water came up all the way to the mountain, so the two SOLDIERs stared at the serene scene from another ledge.

"That's a pretty sight," Zack commented. "Nice to finally see it up close and personal for myself." After a while more of staring, he asked, "So what are we supposed to be doing here?"

Sephiroth had his arms folded across his chest. "Perhaps Cloud is suggesting that you need to calm down once in a while."

"Aww, how nice of him," Zack grinned. He put a hand over his eyes. "Hey, lookie, there's a waterfall over there."

The other SOLDIER had noticed that as well. "Interesting," he commented. "There's a river flowing above these mountains."

"And a river leading out as well," Zack pointed in the direction opposite of the waterfall. Sure enough, there was a tiny, almost invisible stream of water leading out of the area, sloping gradually into the landscape below. "You know," Zack was saying, "this place would make an excellent hiding place for someone who doesn't want to be found."

Despite himself, Sephiroth found himself agreeing. "The problem is, of course, how to get here in the first place. And then there's the other problem of where the hermit would actually stay."

Zack had been staring in the direction of the waterfall as Sephiroth made his commentary. He squinted more and more, until finally, he exclaimed, "There's something flashing there!"

Looking in the same direction, Sephiroth saw what Zack had meant. There was something flashing indeed, and it wasn't the sunlight reflecting off the cascading waterfall. It was a sharp glint that occurred at irregular intervals.

"What do you think it is?" Zack asked in an excited whisper.

"We won't know for sure until we go closer," Sephiroth decided not to speculate. Slowly, the two of them made their way over to the waterfall by scaling the precarious cliff walls one ledge at a time. No one questioned the other why they weren't using the ship to fly over instead. After all, they were playing a game. No wait, a treasure hunt. No wait, they were having a guided tour of the future world!

Closer to the waterfall, there was actually a sandy strip of beach, which was where the two SOLDIERs eventually ended up on. There was nothing much on the beach, except a few pieces of seashells. Sephiroth looked up at the thundering waterfall as Zack examined the perimeter of the beach. After a while, they regrouped and shared their findings.

"Don't think any of these seashells was the cause," Zack had picked one up and was waving it around. "The shells are shiny and everything, but they don't give off a sharp glint."

Sephiroth nodded in acknowledgement. "There is a cave behind the waterfall," he said plainly.

Zack blinked. "A cave?"

"Yes."

"Can we access it?"

"Most probably."

"Chances that the glinting stuff is inside?"

"All things considered, exceptionally high."

Zack grinned and chucked the seashell in his hand away. "Lead the way, boss!" He declared victoriously.

"Precautions first, SOLDIER," Sephiroth reminded, setting up a Barrier as he strode forward.

"Oh, right," Zack nodded sagely, throwing up a Barrier as well. "I forget sometimes."

"All the time," Sephiroth corrected. Without waiting for a reply, he walked into the falling streams of water, followed closely by Zack. The journey through the curtain lasted a few seconds, but the pounding water made it seem a little longer. Nevertheless, when they broke through the torrents and stepped into a quiet, tranquil cavern glowing with natural energy, it was as if the loud pounding of the water outside had faded to the back of their minds.

It turned out they were right - the irregular sharp glint was coming from a torchlight that had been set to go on and off at intervals. It had been placed in such a way that it would shine on the large crystal stalactite protruding out from the roof of the cavern.

On closer examination, however, they saw that it wasn't really a stalactite. It was a pillar of crystal that somehow had its bottom snapped off in a rather dramatic fashion, giving it the look of a stalactite. While Sephiroth looked over the interesting phenomenon, Zack picked the torchlight up and gave the room a cursory glance.

"The torchlight definitely show signs of recent use," Zack finally commented. "The cave, however, doesn't."

Sephiroth said nothing. He stooped down and stepped into the stalactite lookalike, which he now discovered that it not only was hollow inside, but was rather roomy as well. More than enough space to house a person standing, though any other activity would be rather dubious. He had gone inside the crystal because there was a piece of paper on the floor within.

"What did you find?" Zack sauntered over with the torch.

"A letter," was Sephiroth's slightly disturbed reply.

"Who's it for?" Zack detected the tone of voice, but didn't ask.

"Me."

Now Zack was mystified. "Is it from Cloud?" 

"No." And that was all Sephiroth would say. He strode out of the hollow crystal pillar, still looking at the letter. Deciding it was none of his business anyway, Zack shrugged and followed.

"Any clues as to where the chocobo feather might be?" Zack asked. "I've searched everywhere and it doesn't seem like it could be anywhere. In that case, this is probably not the place Cloud wanted to show us?"

"Check the battery compartment of the torch," Sephiroth suggested offhandedly, still reading.

Zack did. "Wow! You are a genius, boss," he exclaimed. There was a baby chocobo feather wedged on the sides where the batteries were placed.

"I prefer to call myself a man with common sense," the other SOLDIER replied. He folded the paper and put it away.

"So Cloud did want us to find this place," Zack nodded. "I can sort of imagine, though. It IS a very pretty place. And I've always wondered what was inside this area. Maybe I even mentioned it offhandedly to him way back in the past when we were still, err, eons younger. Makes me soft and mushy inside to know that he still remembered after all this time..."

"Yes, it's a very nice place," Sephiroth agreed. But his tone of voice and manner suggested that his mind was very much somewhere else. He realised it himself a few moments later, and the distant look in his eye faded away almost imperceptibly. "It feels like... home."

"A perfect hideaway. In fact, I feel like I could just stay here for the next two weeks!" Zack stretched like a cat.

"Tomorrow we return, SOLDIER," Sephiroth was back to his businesslike self. Still, he had to hold himself back from shooting Zack a glare. "And since time is short, we might as well return to the ship to find out our next destination."

Zack pouted, and actually sat down on the cave floor. "But it's so nice and cool here! We can set up camp and maybe a fire. The sound of the water falling, the rejuvenating glow of the mako crystals... What's a tour without a hotel, right? And this is just what we need."

Sephiroth gave Zack a long, but blank stare. "Do you want to go back without talking to the Cloud of this world for one last time?"

Zack blinked. "No..."

"Then we will continue this guided tour until we find him. Hopefully we can act quickly enough before your annual leave runs out," the general shook his head. "It's not that I don't understand your point of view. Since we've already bent the time rules, we might as well bend it some more, right? But there's no telling what we could change unknowingly. And we can't know for sure if the Planet, or Lifestream, or whatever we're using to get back, is really going to put us back at whatever time we wanted. We don't have enough weight to dictate that, Zack."

The pout was still on Zack' face, but he had turned aside with a pensive look. He definitely knew in his head that his superior was right (as usual), but his heart still prodded him in the other direction (as usual).

Finally, he leapt onto his feet. The pout was gone, and in its place was a wide grin. "You're right, sir!" He saluted. "And now that you mention it, I'm kinda missing my spikey friend too. Race you to the ship!!" Without waiting for an answer, he took off.

Sephiroth allowed himself a small smile before following, albeit a lot more calmly. Oh, he was going to have the last laugh.

And as it turned out, he did have the last laugh. Zack had forgotten that Sephiroth controlled the ship like it was an extension of his own body. Even from a distance, he could summon the ship to him, which was what he did while Zack was scaling cliff walls. Back in the cockpit, he got an earful from Zack about cheating and the like, but after pointing out that Zack merely wanted to 'race to the ship' and had stipulated no rules, the sulking SOLDIER found a lonely corner and ruminated there until their next destination, which the globe had indicated as the Cosmo Canyon region.

With Zack in self-exile mode, Sephiroth took the silence of his sounding board as a chance to look up the area using the ship's database. Amazingly, the ship was not only self-repairing (which they found out after they accidentally scraped the side of the ship on a mountain), but its information bank was self-updating as well. It responded to frequencies of all levels, read into radiowaves, and parsed just about every known invisible data protocol under the sun. And maybe even some unknown. This thing was truly a piece of engineering and technological masterpiece. Sephiroth would be quite upset to eventually have to leave it. Thankfully, he would never remember it. And what you couldn't remember, you wouldn't miss, right?

Maps of the Cosmo Canyon region sprung up in vibrant holographic popup screens all around Sephiroth, until he found the one he was looking for - the latest photograph of the telescope they had almost bumped in the initial part of their tour.

He wasn't a scientist, and never had a good impression of the profession, so he didn't know much about telescopes, nor did he read much about them. However he did know that the bigger the lens (and thus the bigger the telescope), the further they could see. Since they were being guided to the area, they would most definitely have an encounter with that giant telescope one way or the other. Cloud was probably even counting on it. So he pulled up information about the telescope, what it viewed, and what its opening hours were. He discreetly got the ship to send the data to Zack' corner.

Zack made a few grunts of agreement, but did not break his self-imposed silence.

Cosmo Canyon was only a short way off from where they were, so they were there in the blink of an eye. Parking the ship behind a corner in the canyon, the two SOLDIERs disembarked and made their way into the principal Cosmo Canyon town. It was only after they stepped over the entrance to town that Zack broke out of his shell. He punched both hands into the air and yelled, "Whoopie!!"

"So you've finally found your voice," Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I told myself I wasn't going to until I win you to the next town," the SOLDIER beamed wolfishly at his superior. "And I just did that! One step before you!" He pointed at the line that indicated the entrance to town.

Sephiroth found the entire thing so trivial, he did not dignify Zack with a response. Instead he said, "We should probably check the telescope."

"Hey, it's my tour!" Zack protested. "Let me do the leading! So yeah, let's check the telescope!" He declared and dashed off across the town square in the direction of the massive telescope.

It was almost evening time by now. The orange hue in the sky reflected on the canyon gave the entire landscape a warm and welcoming glow, despite its generally barren outlook on the whole. Windows of the mud houses in the canyon town started lighting up. There were a few people still ambling around the main streets, and some were quite obviously tourists. Despite the item of interest (read: telescope), it was clear to Sephiroth that the town had remained a sleepy town. Perhaps they just didn't care to promote tourism here, or perhaps not enough people cared about the outer space to visit. Whatever it was, the lack of a crowd made this place very pleasant indeed to the city-dweller.

Pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind, Sephiroth continued on his way towards the giant telescope. Zack was already nowhere to be seen, so he assumed the other SOLDIER was already inside. When he stepped into the complex holding the huge telescope, he was rather awed.

The ceiling of the first storey was built like a three-dimensional planetarium of the current known universe. There were also information boxes furnishing more information about one planet or the other. After perusing through quite a few exhibits, Sephiroth decided it was time to locate his companion. He headed off to the main attraction, located on the third floor.

True enough, Zack was there. In the middle was the gigantic telescope mounted on a sturdily built platform. It pointed up to the sky, and there was a short queue of people waiting to peer into its lens. Zack was among them, and he was quite in front, so Sephiroth didn't go over to bother him. Instead, he examined the room, which was round in shape and walled with glass curtains. There were also other telescopes of various sizes pointing in various directions all around the circumference of the room.

The other smaller telescopes around the room were labelled with place names, so Sephiroth assumed they offered a bird's eye view of the particular place from this spot here in Cosmo Canyon. And after examining a few of them, he found out that he was right.

It was quite interesting, looking at all the places in the current world through a telescope. This was probably one of the reason why Cloud had directed them here. Where else could they get a quick overview of the world all at once?

Just as Sephiroth decided he had had enough and was about to go seek Zack out again, he overheard two technicians talking.

"I don't know, it looks like a feather to me."

"Why would there be a feather on top of the lens? We're nowhere near a chocobo stable."

Of course, all things considered, this certainly deeply interested him. He went nearer to the two talking technicians and waited to hear more.

"It wasn't there yesterday when I checked the lens," one of the technicians was saying, with his arms crossed over his chest in a pose of defiance.

"Oh come on, I wasn't implying you didn't do your job or anything," the other technician sighed. "I just wanted to inform you so we could come up with something together..."

It seemed like they might be taking a while, so Sephiroth simply took note of which telescope they were standing in front of before moving off to find Zack after all.

Zack had evidently already finished viewing whatever the large telescope had to show, for he was standing to a side and in deep thought about something. When he sensed Sephiroth approaching, however, he put on his usual grin. "Yo!" He saluted his superior. "Whaccha find?"

"What about you?" Sephiroth nodded in the direction of the gigantic telescope.

At that, Zack shook his head and sighed in resignation. "It's awesome, of course," he remarked, "but it's aimed at the furthest planet in our universe, which would take 18 million light years to reach. I don't know about you, but I don't think it's a good idea to try to get there, even with your new toy."

"I found a feather," Sephiroth said, after Zack finished.

"Seriously! That's our clue then!" The other SOLDIER's demeanour changed and now he was visibly excited. "Where is it?"

"On a telescope."

Zack tilted his head. "Where does that telescope point to?"

"I have no idea," Sephiroth turned around and nodded in the direction of the two squabbling technicians. "They've been arguing about it since just now, and I couldn't look at it. The label says 'Ancient Forest', though."

"Hmm... probably a new place. I've never heard of it in our time before," Zack put two fingers on his chin and thought out loud. "Where could it be?"

"It's pointing southeast of here," Sephiroth was saying. "Perhaps we could cruise along that direction and land on the nearest forest. After all, how many forests can there be along a canyon?"

"Sounds like a plan," Zack beamed again. "But hey, since it's already so late, we should probably stay here for today! You know, be tourists and everything. And being the science buff or whatever you are, you might as well go take a look at that gigantic telescope before we go!" He jerked a thumb behind him, in the direction of 'that gigantic telescope'.

"Needless to say, I will do just that," Sephiroth had been intending to do that anyway. "Can I trust you to find suitable lodgings for us this time?" He asked Zack with slight suspicion in his voice.

"Aww, didn't you like the inn at Wutai?" Zack pouted.

"Not everyone likes to sleep in hammocks, Zack."

Zack actually guffawed at that. "Don't worry about anything and just leave it to me, boss!" He waved and dashed out of the observatory without turning back.

'That's why I'm worried,' thought Sephiroth to himself as he watched Zack disappear. Nevertheless, he made his way to the large telescope, intrigue winning over anxiety about where they would stay the night.

x--x

In the end, Zack found them a rather decent hotel carved out from one of the walls of the canyons. From their open windows, they could see the town's public square and surrounding buildings quite clearly. Still, it was a rather eventless night. Unlike Wutai, which was often brimming with festivities, Cosmo Canyon had always been a quiet place for relaxing meditation.

So the duo set off in search for the Ancient Forest the first thing next morning.

The morning of their last day in the future.

The Ancient Forest wasn't hard to locate. As Sephiroth had mentioned, a forest growing in the middle of hard canyon soil couldn't possibly be missed for anything in the world. Therefore, within a very short period of time, they found themselves hovering above the luxuriant canopy of trees atop a particularly high canyon.

"Looks like the only plausible spot in the whole region to suit the description of a forest," Zack pointed out.

Sephiroth nodded in agreement. He piloted the ship to land in a clearing, and after that they disembarked.

Of course, the first thing they noticed were the oversized venus flytraps and pitcher plants.

"I think," Zack had the fairytale book in his hands, so he opened it. "I think... this is the kingdom of man-eating flowers."

Sephiroth used his sword to pry open a closed venus flytrap. The flytrap gurgled and an acidic liquid began to ooze out from between its teeth.

"Uh-huh," Zack glanced at his companion dubiously. After a while more of standing on the spot, he continued, "So what was Cloud expecting us to do here?"

This time, Sephiroth swung his sword and lopped an overhanging pitcher plant off from its stem. It fell to the floor and acid oozed out from inside as well.

"I get it already, you don't have to keep destroying nature," Zack sighed at his companion.

Sephiroth shook his head. "Don't you hear something?"

Zack stared at his superior like he was crazy, but nevertheless concentrated. In order not to confuse himself too much, he tended to switch his enhancements off when not actively using them (they had an entire course dedicated to training them to do this in the SOLDIER program). Now that they were back on, all he could hear were insects, birds, a faraway monster or two, and the sound of wind blowing on the strings of a harp.

"Someone planted a music instrument in this forest," Zack concluded. "Or maybe in the future world, music instruments grow on trees?"

Sephiroth simply folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes. After a while, he opened his eyes and turned his head to look in a particular direction. He moved towards the large tree that was there.

Zack had followed, and they both stood beneath the tree, looking up at the long, long trunk. "I can't see where it ends," Zack admitted, "but I can hear the harp and it's definitely somewhere up there."

"Do you hear any other music instruments?" Sephiroth questioned.

Zack listened to the environment for a while more. "Nope, so I guess it must've been planted there. Would've been cool if they just grew on trees, though!" He shrugged but was grinning away.

"It would have been a disaster," Sephiroth mumbled. The image of a grand piano growing on a tree and dropping down on an innocent passerby flashed through his mind.

"So the question now is, how do we get that harp down?" Zack continued. "Chop the tree?"

"We'll keep that as our last option," Sephiroth said, while digging around in his pockets. He eventually produced a summon materia, and equipped it. And summoned it.

And it was King Arthur and his knights of the round again.

"I seem to see a pattern developing here," King Arthur said, after he and his men had located the harp and brought it down to the ground to give it to the two men there. "So while I'm here, I feel there is a need for me to remind you that summons are guardians and not errand boys."

"Duly noted," Sephiroth smirked. "But tell that to the one who started this trend after you see him again."

King Arthur made an amused snort, bowed, and disappeared back to his dimension.

Left behind with the harp, the two SOLDIERs turned their attention to the harp that had been wedged up in the tree.

"Now where on earth could he be wanting us to go next?" Zack wondered out loud. "This forest looks kinda fun, but I have a feeling I'd be risking my life to explore it. And that's kinda not fun."

After silently thinking for a while more, Sephiroth finally asked, "What are the kingdoms we've already visited according to the fairytale?"

Zack tilted his head questioningly, but complied by recalling all the kingdoms. "Let's see... the underwater labyrinth thing was Midgar, this is the kingdom of man-eating flowers... There was a hidden waterfalls kingdom... and that's probably the crystal cave we saw yesterday. Five terraces is Wutai, space and dreams is Somnium, so we're left with silent reflections and undisturbed seashells. Don't think Cosmo Canyon had any seashells, so it's probably silent reflections?"

"And that leaves undisturbed seashells," Sephiroth nodded in acknowledgement. "Well done, SOLDIER. What else does the tale say about that particular kingdom?"

After considering it for a while more, Zack shook his head sheepishly and said, "I'll have to look at the book again for the details, but it mentioned something about the key to the kingdom being a beautiful song that rouses up even the forest from its sleep or something...?"

Sephiroth nodded in approval. "And does that ring any bells?"

"Oh!" Zack suddenly exclaimed after the prompting. "The Sleeping Forest! We had that even during our era, didn't we?"

"Indeed we did," Sephiroth answered. "And Shinra had never been able to go past it because all the scouts kept falling asleep in it."

"I heard there was a legend saying that the Lunar Harp is the only thing that allows you access into the area and beyond."

"And now it's time for us to test that legend," Sephiroth held the harp out to Zack. "Your game. Your move."

"Stop calling it a game already!" Zack fumed, but accepted the harp all the same.

After looking around a bit more at the thick jungle of exotic plants and animals, they departed from the Ancient Forest and headed back to the ship.

Once back, they tried to locate the nearest chocobo feather using the globe, but it kept indicating Cosmo Canyon. The technicians had probably yet to find a way to get the feather down from the telescope, although Sephiroth believed that Cloud was no longer using feathers to guide them. He had taken the trouble to plant the harp in the tree, after all.

As they flew towards the northern continent and was well out of range from the Cosmo Canyon region, Zack tried the globe again, but it still continued pointing to the same old place. "I guess you must be right," he grudgingly admitted that Sephiroth's theory about Cloud not using the feathers anymore was sound, all things considered. Still, admitting his superior was right always resulted in a smirk that made him want to stomp on something. "So how far away are we from the Sleeping Forest?"

"I'm glad you asked," Sephiroth said, "because we've just arrived."

They disembarked and stood at the entrance of an eeriely silent forest. Incidentally, some of the trunks were glowing. And the green mist the forest was cloaked in did nothing to brighten its eerie image.

"The front part of the tour was nice and exciting," Zack admitted, as they strode through the quiet, quiet forest, "but this is just creepy."

"I find it educating," Sephiroth said. "Shinra never managed to find the Lunar Harp - or they never believed it existed. Either ways, this will probably be the first and last time we step foot into this enigma. Cherish it while you can, SOLDIER."

"Can't see why Shinra would be so interested in it, though," Zack swat away a low-hanging branch.

"Mako, what else?" Sephiroth almost snorted. "And to be honest, the northern continent has always thrummed with the beat of the Planet. It's not surprising they might want to check out possible new energy sources. Thankfully, this serene forest is being protected by something far greater than corporate greed."

"Like, the Planet?" Zack joked.

"Like the Planet," Sephiroth simply replied. The light was getting brighter as they walked, indicating that they were nearing the end of the forest. A few silent moments of steady walking later, they were out, and standing before a makeshift log-bridge of sorts over a thin strip of calm, unmoving waters.

Sephiroth paused and took a long look around himself. The forest had led them to a mountainous enclave of sorts. Within the enclave were paths leading towards and around what he could only deduce was a city. There were houses, strangely-shaped though they were, surrounding a large structure of protruding tree trunks that twisted around each other before eventually fanning out to cover almost the entire canopy of the enclave. At the lower portion of the trunks were leaf-like structures, sheltering the houses at the edge of the city.

Obviously, there used to be people staying here. And from the looks of things, a very long time ago. Where they went to or what happened to them, Sephiroth had no idea. Although, if he didn't know about them, it was likely they weren't in his era. Then again, there were so many things the world still didn't know about. There was really no telling.

He walked across the bridge, towards the city, quietly followed by Zack.

Together they briefly toured the empty city. True to its moniker in the fairytale, there were seashells all right. Gigantic ones, serving as houses. Though all of them were devoid of life, the place was at the same time devoid of any kind of sadness. Somehow, the bright light shining through the canopy of the twisted branches dispelled all such feelings. Nevertheless, as it didn't particularly seem appropriate for reasons unknown to the both of them, neither spoke.

That is, until they saw Cloud.

He was sitting on a ledge of sorts, staring into space when his gaze inadvertently fell on the two approaching SOLDIERs. He froze, genuinely surprised to see them, although it was only detectable by the slight widening of his eyes. He hopped down from the protrusion in the wall that looked like either a bed or a very uncomfortable sofa. "You made it to the end of the tour! But the end is only the beginning. Welcome to the Forgotten Capital," was his simple yet confusing introduction. After a questioning silence, he added, "I stay here once in a while because it's... nostalgic. Interestingly, it's also one of the few places on the Planet where you can get away from the Planet."

"Now hold it right there, buster!" Zack stormed up and caught the surprised Cloud in a headlock. "You disappeared and led us on a wild goose chase all around the Planet and when we finally meet again, this is all you have to say?!"

"Ow, ow!" Was all Cloud had to say at the moment.

"Allow me to explain," Vincent suddenly materialised from a shadow in the room, causing Zack to yelp in surprise. "Although, there really isn't anything much to explain. We just thought you might enjoy the slight respite before going home."

"It was an enlightening tour," Sephiroth concurred.

"But without a guide," Zack complained, letting go of Cloud as he did. The latter very quickly retreated out of arm's reach.

"To be honest, the world right now is much too complex to be covered within three days," Vincent continued. "The population has grown since your era, and there are more places to go. Nevertheless, you've been to both cities and nature reserves. Surely it was a fulfilling tour, all things considered."

Sephiroth had been digging around his pockets, and took out the summon materia. "King Arthur sends his regards," he threw the orb towards Cloud, who caught it. "And he wants you to stop using him as an errand boy."

"What? I never ask him to run errands!" Cloud scoffed, tucking the materia away. "Though, I do ask him for favours," he got into a thoughtful pose. "I guess that means I should be careful the next time I see him..."

Zack had deflated by now, and had sat himself on the ledge Cloud had previously been on. "I guess you're right," he was addressing Vincent. "It was kinda fun - without a guide and everything. Discovering everything by ourselves..." He paused and glanced around himself. "But what is this place? Forgotten Capital? Of which country?"

Cloud and Vincent exchanged glances. "The Ancients used to stay here," Cloud eventually said, without fanfare.

"The Ancients?" It was Sephiroth. He frowned. "What are we doing here, then?

"This city was already in ruins during your era," Cloud explained. "The natural barriers around this place meant that it was hardly ever disturbed, and that continued down to today. As for what we're doing here..." He turned and started walking towards a ramp heading downwards. "Follow me," he simply said.

Lower and lower they went, until the only light that reached them was the the whitish-blue glow of the barren trunks that shielded the city from view overhead. Finally, they arrived at a cavern of shimmering, blue water. The ramp widened out into a road, which led to a large seashell-shaped structure that had obviously seen better days. Light rays glared down at the structure, contrasting it with the dim surroundings.

Within the structure was pitch darkness, and a winding staircase of light. As they carefully made their way down the stairs, they eventually came to see that it led to yet another hidden structure in the bowels of the earth, surrounded by light crystals. This particular structure was not in as bad a state as the village houses above, but obvious signs of age were there. Besides the main buildings, there was an outbuilding that looked like an elaborate observatory at first, but was actually an altar.

It was to this altar that Cloud led them.

Taking in the sights took a while, but the silence stretched on for much longer than it was necessary to simply take in the sights.

Eventually, Zack had to ask, "Again, why are we here? Don't get me wrong, it's really beautiful and everything, but I have this strange feeling we're intruding on a space we really shouldn't be."

Zack' sharp senses never failed to amaze Cloud, even now. He smiled wryly. "Well," he tested his voice first, and after making sure it was steady, continued, "this is the place closest to the Planet, and also the place the white materia responds best to. To ensure a higher rate of success when you return, you know? Can't have you landing in yet another time stream and messing things up."

Sephiroth was not convinced. "You just said a while ago this is one of the few places on the Planet where you can get away from the Planet."

"Yeah," Cloud nodded. "It's complicated," he tried not to twist his facial expressions too much. "But trust me on this - the white materia will be a lot easier to activate here. I'm not sure about the black materia, though, but considering the close proximity to the crater, I should think the effect is about the same."

The weight of the situation began to truly sink into the two time-travellers for the first time in the three days of their mundane touring. The fact that they were outsiders to this time stream; the fact that they were standing at the threshold of the door home, so to speak - it was only starting to sink in now, as they discussed their method of return and the best way to go about doing it.

Cloud had moved to join Vincent near the staircase leading up to the altar. The line was thus clearly drawn.

"I wanted to talk to you more, kiddo," Zack protested feebly from where he stood on the altar platform. But he made no move to go closer to where Cloud was. "You let us go on the tour by ourselves partly because you didn't want to talk to me, didn't you?"

In reply, Cloud gaped a little.

"You don't have to hide it, I had a feeling," Zack shrugged. "It's okay, Cloud. I understand," he smiled.

And Cloud knew he really did. "I'm sorry," he apologised, his eyes downcast.

"It's fine!" Zack flashed him a thumbs-up sign. Turning to Sephiroth, he asked, "So, you ready to go back home, sir?"

Sephiroth eyed him accusingly. "I was ready three days ago, SOLDIER."

Zack just laughed.

All of a sudden, a flash of light struck the platform, blinding everyone present momentarily. When they managed to open their eyes again, the light had faded away. In turn, however, the black and white materia had been pulled out from where they had been kept, and were now floating in the air, each glowing softly.

Lifestream was starting to crawl out from the cracks in the platform. "And I think the Planet is ready to boot us back to where we belong," Sephiroth said, and he sounded amused.

"Gee, why am I not surprised, the little spoilsport," Zack sulked a little, and received a gentle jab from a tendril of Lifestream. "Ouch! I was joking!" He protested. Above the two SOLDIERs, the light from the two materia kept getting brighter and brighter. Below them, the Lifestream slowly weaved itself into a cocoon of meshes.

"Farewell, sojourners," was Sephiroth's simple salutation. "Our minds may never remember your hospitality, but our hearts always will."

Cloud actually smiled at that. "Hey," he said, when the light was so bright, he could no longer see ahead properly. "Do you believe in happily-ever-afters?"

The reply was a light chuckle. "I don't know, Cloud.

"That depends on you."

And then green light engulfed everything.

 

x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x  
THE END  
2apr2012


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